From Afar
by Amaratta
Summary: [AU – Canon Divergence] He had vowed to find and then protect her. Now that she's found, he's determined to protect her without bringing her into the mess that was his life and his family affairs. But how far could he keep his distance when love has a tendency to draw a man close to his loved ones?
1. A Man With A Promise

Disclaimer: Bleach concept and characters belong to Kubo Tite. Amaratta only borrows some of them to play in this story and promises to return them as unscathed as possible once she's done with them.

A/N: While I have read quite a few Byakuya/Rukia stories in the past, I haven't written anything for this pairing yet, but I guess there's the first time for everything. This story is a canon divergent AU, in which Byakuya didn't adopt Rukia into the Kuchiki Family as his sister but opted to protect her from afar instead. The pacing of this story is rather slow at the start and the tone of the story may seem a bit depressing at times, but it wouldn't stay that way for the rest of the story, so bear with me for now. In any case, please feel free to leave a comment. I'd like to hear your opinion about this story.

* * *

_Byakuya-sama, please find my sister. Then after you find her, please do not tell her that I am her sister. Without telling her anything, please Byakuya-sama, please protect my sister no matter what._

**Chapter 1: A Man With A Promise**

Plum blossoms were in full bloom, painting the garden of the Kuchiki Mansion with their dark pink color. Even though he used to enjoy viewing the flowers, Kuchiki Byakuya didn't spare them a glance as he walked down the wooden porch, heading toward the meeting room where a meeting with his elders would be held.

It had been a little over a year since his wife, Kuchiki Hisana, passed away, and with her, went his desire to view any flowers. After all, those blooming flowers could not compare to the beauty of even the frailest smile of hers, and to view those flowers without her by his side would only remind him of something he could no longer have.

Shaking the thought of his late wife out of his head, Byakuya continued on his way to the meeting room. He wasn't sure what the elders had on their agenda when they summoned him for a meeting, but he had a feeling that it was not going to be something good.

When Byakuya arrived to the meeting room, he spotted the family's old butler, Seike Nobutsune, kneeling in front of the closed shoji door, waiting for his arrival.

"All the elders are here, Byakuya-sama," the old man reported before he moved to slide the door open for the master.

"Thank you," said Byakuya. "You may leave now."

The old butler bowed to Byakuya and waited until the noble lord entered the room before he closed the shoji door behind and then took his leave.

Just like every other room in the Kuchiki Mansion, the meeting room was decorated in Japanese style with a long low table in the middle of the room. Ten elders were sitting on their respective zabuton seat at both sides of the table, leaving one empty seat at the head of the table for Byakuya to take.

"Good morning," Byakuya greeted as he took his seat at the head of the meeting table. Once he was seated, Byakuya spared all formality by asking, "May I ask why the meeting is called today?"

The elder who sat to the far right bowed once at Byakuya before he spoke. His name was Kuchiki Hiroshi, and he was the head of the branch family whose authority in the Kuchiki House seconded only to Byakuya who was the head of the family.

"First of all, we must congratulate you for having achieved bankai," said Hiroshi. "It's about time you did so."

Byakuya narrowed his slate eyes slightly at the older man's words. While it might seem like a genuine praise to some, Byakuya knew when it came to that man, it was anything but. Hiroshi might as well reprimand him for having paid all of his attentions to his sickly wife instead of focusing on training so he was unable to attain bankai sooner.

"Thank you, Hiroshi," Byakuya replied. His expression and voice revealed no hint of what he actually felt about Hiroshi's words. "Indeed it is nice to be able to accomplish something that not everybody could achieve in their lifetime regardless of how much they try."

Byakuya was certain that the old man was offended by his implication, but Byakuya couldn't care less about what the old man felt. After all, he was not the one who started a fight. He supposed the elders would prefer it if he were to be a docile, modest, soft-spoken kind of man, since it meant he would easily be manipulated and used as their puppet.

"However, I have a feeling you did not ask me to attend this meeting just to congratulate me," Byakuya continued, seeing that no elder said anything after his previous remark.

"We are wondering when you are going to request to take the taishu test," Hiroshi responded. "The Sixth Division has been without a captain for years since Ginrei-sama passed on, so now that you attained bankai, you should make it your priority to pass that test and become a captain in succession of Ginrei-sama. However, we can't help noticing that you still make it your priority to search for Hisana's 'lost sister' even now..."

Byakuya narrowed his eyes and was about to counter the older man's words when another elders who was sitting next to Hiroshi, Kuchiki Naoki, cut in, attempting to tone down what could have ended up as a heated argument between the head of the clan and one of the elders.

"Do not mistake our intention, Byakuya-sama. The council is only concerned because you have spent quite a lot of time and resources on this search, which if we are going to be completely honest here, is no more than a wild goose chase. We understand that you had to make that promise in order to give your dying wife a peace of mind. However, Hisana-dono already passed away, so there is no point in continuing this search. After all, if Hisana-dono's sister is anything like Hisana-dono, there is very little chance that she—"

"That's enough," Byakuya said in a warning tone. "It doesn't really matter how slim that chance is. What really matters is that I have given Hisana my word that I would continue searching for her sister until I find her. I don't know about this council, but I, for one, would not want people to say that a promise of a Kuchiki holds no meaning, since even the head of the clan values his time and money more than he does the promise he made to his dead wife."

"Besides," Byakuya continued, "it is not as if all I do is sitting around all day doing nothing but wasting the family's fortune. Every kan put into this search came from my own paycheck, so I cannot see how it fits for any of you to tell me how I can or cannot spend the money I earn."

The elders were all taken aback by Byakuya's words and the tone of voice he used when he uttered them.

"As for your concern regarding my taking the taishu test, I would do so when I feel ready. After all, there is more to that test than just showing off one's bankai. Now is there any other things I have or have not done that have this council concerned?"

Not only did he ask, Byakuya also raised an eyebrow as if to challenge the elders to say something else to rebuke him.

"There is also a matter of your remarriage."

Byakuya glanced toward the man who raised the new subject, Kuchiki Kaede. From what Byakuya had seen so far, Kaede was the most compromising member of the clan council. However, it didn't necessarily mean that he was the easiest to deal with.

"I understand this is not a subject you wish to discuss but someone has to bring it up someday," Kaede continued calmly. "After all, this family needs an heir. It has been a year since Hisana-dono passed away, so now is a good time for you to seek a new wife."

"I take it you've already listed the names of all suitable prospects?"

"And if I said I had, would you take a look at them, Byakuya-sama?"

Byakuya sighed softly. Although he wanted to honor Hisana's memory by remaining as a widower after she died, he knew it was impossible for him to do so unless he wished to give up his position as the head of the clan. However, he had vowed to his grandfather that he would protect the Kuchiki Family with all of his might and thus could not simply step down just because he didn't like the hassles that came together with the position. Therefore, he had resigned to it that if the subject was ever brought up again someday, he would agree to wed someone the elders suggested in order to do his duty as the clan leader. Still, he couldn't help feeling sorry – not for himself since at the very least he would still have the memories of his time with Hisana to live by, but for any other parties that were unlucky enough to be involved in the arrangement.

"I can promise to look at those names and to meet with those ladies," Byakuya stated. "However, I cannot promise that there would be a wedding soon, since as you all have mentioned earlier, there is still the taishu test to worry about."

Kaede seemed surprised to hear that answer. He had expected Byakuya to fight tooth and nail against the idea of marrying some woman that the elders had chosen for him and insist that he would not marry again unless it was to someone he loved. It was almost anti-climactic that he simply agreed to the idea without any fight or at least giving the elders some snappy repartee. Therefore, he couldn't help wondering if Byakuya was actually planning something.

"Will that be all for today?" Byakuya asked again, but unlike the previous times he asked, this time, the elders didn't raise other subject. "Well, in that case, I shall take my leave now."

With a nod from each elder, Byakuya gave them a slight bow of his head before he rose from his seat and left the room.

* * *

Byakuya rubbed the bridge of his nose as he entered his private quarters. He always had a headache after a meeting with the elders and the previous meeting was no exception. It seemed to him that he would never meet their expectations of him no matter how hard he tried that sometimes he wondered why he even bothered.

Since he couldn't think of a better way to relieve his stress, Byakuya decided it would be a good day for him to head out to Rukongai and practice his zanpakutō. Therefore, as soon as he reached to his private quarters, he headed to the vanity table where he placed the heirloom silver-white, windflower silk scarf and the kenseikan hair clip after he removed them.

Just as he was about to pick up his zanpakutō from the sword stand which was set by the wall, Byakuya heard soft footsteps, so he turned over his shoulder and saw the faithful butler coming toward his direction.

"What is it?" Byakuya asked as he picked up his sword.

"Kaede-sama asked me to pass this book to you, Byakuya-sama. He said you already agreed to take a look at it."

With that said, the old butler presented a large hardback book to Byakuya who gave it a quick glance without actually accepting it from the butler. He could tell just from its look that the book that Kaede had passed to him was in fact a photo album which contained the photos of whoever it was that the elders deemed suitable to be his wife.

"Just put it in my study," Byakuya remarked, not wanting anything to do with that so-called book at the moment. "I'll take a look at it later when I have time."

Noticing the zanpakutō in his master's hand and the way the man dressed, Seike didn't need to question Byakuya what the noble was planning to do as it was already clear to him the nobleman would be out for a sword practice, so instead of asking whether the master would go out, he asked, "Will you return for lunch, Byakuya-sama?"

"No. I'll be out all day, so if anyone comes to see me, ask them to come by again tomorrow."

"Yes, Byakuya-sama."

Hearing the answer from the butler, Byakuya made his way out, hoping that despite the bad start, the rest of his day would not turn out to be too bad.

* * *

The sun had already set by the time Byakuya decided he had trained enough for one day. His zanpakutō, Senbonzakura, had made quite a lot of complaints when they met in Byakuya's inner world, mostly regarding the fact that Byakuya didn't put up more of a fight when the elders told him he should remarry although his wife had only passed away for one year. However, that wasn't really a surprise, considering Senbonzakura usually shared his sentiment, although the zanpakutō was more straightforward and was rougher on the edge when compared to his wielder.

'You should have told them to mind their own businesses,' was what Senbonzakura had said to him. 'If they want someone to get married so badly, they should do so themselves.'

A talk with Senbonzakura often relieved him of his inner turmoil, especially when his pride as a Kuchiki prevented him from having things his way. The zanpakutō would express what Byakuya had to repress, and although a conversation with Senbonzakura could not change his course of action, it was still good to know that at least one person understood him even if said person was merely his zanpakutō.

Although Byakuya could use flash-steps to return to the Kuchiki Mansion sooner, he decided against the idea and simply took a leisure walk back. After all, more fresh air could never hurt anyone.

Byakuya was lost in his thought until his ears caught something that sounded very much like a fight from a dark corner of the road back to Seireitei.

"Just leave me alone!"

"Oh, playing hard to get, aren't ya?"

"Hey, let me go, you creep!"

Byakuya quickly made his way to where the sound of the fight came from. And once he was there, he saw a petite woman whose right wrist was being seized by a man in a Shinigami uniform who appeared to want to drag her along somewhere. Although her right arm was held, the woman still put up a fight as she kicked the Shinigami in his shin and then punched him with her left fist. However, her fist was caught before she could land a hit on him.

"Let me go! Help! Somebody help!"

"Oh, nobody's gonna help you, bitch! Nobody around here is stupid enough to fight a Shinigami."

The woman kept kicking the Shinigami, obviously not going to give in despite her disadvantage.

Byakuya couldn't help admiring the woman's fighting spirit while being furious at that Shinigami who clearly didn't deserve to be a member of the honorable Goteijūsantai. He didn't have to think twice before he flash-stepped behind that Shinigami and struck the nape of his neck with his hand, knocking that Shinigami out in one strike.

Meanwhile, the woman instinctively jumped back as the Shinigami fell face first to the ground before she turned her attention to the man who suddenly appeared out of nowhere to help her.

Byakuya opened his mouth to ask her how she was, but the words never left his mouth when he got a good look at that woman. Byakuya's slate eyes widened in surprise, and for the first time in a long time, he didn't quite know how he was supposed to act.

That woman, with her short ebony hair, large sapphire eyes, small nose and full peach-colored lips, she would be an exact replica of his dead wife if only she were a couple of years older. Byakuya almost called out his wife's name and reached his hand out to her; however, he stopped himself midway, realizing that no matter how much that woman looked like Hisana, she was definitely not her. Hisana was more modest, and she didn't have that feisty spirit that Byakuya had witnessed from her lookalike. Still, she reminded him so much of Hisana that it almost hurt to look at her.

The woman seemed to have mistaken his silence as a signal to leave, so she quickly gave him a bow before she ran off without so much as saying thank you.

Byakuya kept staring after the woman until he heard Senbonzakura's voice telling him that he still had other task at hand, so Byakuya blinked twice before he looked down to the ground where the bad Shinigami was left out cold. He bent down and pulled the collar of his shihakushō up enough to reveal the lily of the valley insignia which was embroidered on inside of the kimono.

"The Fifth Division, huh?" he muttered to himself before he furrowed his brows. "Let's see what Aizen-taichō would say about his subordinate's behavior, then."


	2. A Girl From Inuzuri

A/N: Thanks to all who showed their support to this story by reviewing, subscribing and/or adding to favorite stories list. For all reviewers, I appreciate your thoughts and comments, and I apologize for not responding to any of you personally. Anyway, I hope this installment doesn't come out as a disappointment, but as always, comments and criticisms are welcome.

* * *

**Chapter 2: A Girl From Inuzuri**

A petite black-haired woman paid almost no attention to her surroundings as she ran as fast as she could to the gate of the Shinō Academy and didn't stop even after she entered the campus. She ran straight ahead toward the dorm area and entered the female dorm and finally stopped to sign in her name at the entrance of the dorm.

"Great," she muttered to herself, panting slightly. "I make it back before the curfew."

Since she didn't expect anyone else to be there, she almost jumped out of her skin when a girl who wore her black hair in pigtails suddenly appeared beside her.

"Rukia-chan! You're finally back."

"Hinamori-san! You startled me."

"Sorry, Rukia-chan, but where have you been?" asked the girl. "Abarai-kun has been looking for you all evening."

Hinamori, otherwise known as Hinamori Momo, was studying in the same year with her in the Shinō Academy and they also lived in the same student dorm. However, Hinamori was in a different class from Rukia's since Hinamori was an advanced student. They only got to know each other through their common friend, Abarai Renji.

"Oh, it's just this part-time job that I do," Rukia replied.

She didn't suppose she should tell Hinamori about what happened on her way back as it would only serve to heighten the girl's worry even though nothing actually happened, thanks to that mysterious man who popped out of nowhere to help her.

When she came to think about it again, she hadn't even properly thanked that man, let alone asked him for his name since she was too concerned about getting back to the dorm before the curfew. There was no way for her to tell who that mysterious man was; however, he was good enough at hand-to-hand combat and flash-stepping to be able to appear out of nowhere and knock that creepy Shinigami out by just one strike.

Looking back to the earlier event made Rukia's skin crawl. Who knew what would have happened if that man hadn't come to her rescue? Rukia hadn't thought about it at the time she fought that Shinigami and she clearly didn't want to think about it then. All she needed to be concerned about was to study harder to have better skills in combat so that at least she could protect herself when someone tried to assault her.

"Oh. You've been taking many part-time jobs lately, Rukia-chan," Hinamori commented. "Do you need a lot of extra money?"

"Yeah, there's something I want to buy, and that doesn't come cheap," Rukia replied without giving Hinamori any more detail.

"Then be sure not to overexert yourself, Rukia-chan."

Rukia simply nodded. "Anyway, I'm a bit tired, Hinamori-san, so can I be excused?"

"Ah, yes, I'm sorry for keeping you here. By the way, don't forget to go and see Abarai-kun tomorrow. He's been worried about you."

Again, Rukia responded with a nod, so Hinamori gave her a smile before she left Rukia to her own device.

Seeing that the other girl had left, Rukia headed to the direction of her dorm room. It appeared she would be in yet another interrogation; however, this time would be by her friend, Abarai Renji, so she might as well prepared an acceptable story to tell him in order not to make him worry about her. After all, Renji could be a worrywart, and while it felt good to know that he cared about her, his overprotectiveness could sometimes be very bothersome.

* * *

Meanwhile, on another part of Seireitei, Kuchiki Byakuya dragged an unconscious Shinigami by the collar toward the direction of the Fifth Division. The Shinigami who saw him on the way gave him a bow as a greeting. Although there were curious looks in their eyes, none of them dared to question him why he dragged in one Shinigami in that fashion.

Once Byakuya reached to the Fifth Division's premises, the Shinigami who were placed as gatekeepers bowed down as a greeting before they glanced to the Shinigami who was dragged in by Byakuya and furrowed their eyebrows once they recognized that Shinigami as one of their division's members.

"Inform Aizen-taichō that I have a matter I wish to speak to him," Byakuya said blandly before either one of the gatekeepers could voice any question.

"Yes, Kuchiki-fukutaichō," said one of the gatekeepers before he quickly went into the premise, leaving the other gatekeeper to guard the door.

He could see the question in the remaining gatekeeper's eyes; however, Byakuya knew if he kept his silence, the man would not dare to ask any question no matter how curious he was.

It didn't take long for the captain of the Fifth Division, Aizen Sōsuke, to come to the front gate. Despite the fact that it was supposed to be a day off for most Shinigami and it had already passed the office hour, the brown-haired, glasses-wearing captain was still in his full uniform, which included the shihakushō and the white captain haori. Aizen didn't come to meet Byakuya alone, but he also brought his silver-haired lieutenant, Ichimaru Gin, with him.

"What is the matter, Kuchiki-kun?" Aizen asked as soon as he arrived to where Byakuya was waiting for him.

"I apologize for bothering you in your private time; however, I caught this man harassing a local woman in the second district of South Rukongai," Byakuya replied. "Since he is your subordinate, I reckon it would be best to leave his punishment to you."

Aizen narrowed his eyes slightly as he glared at his unconscious subordinate. He then looked back at his lieutenant who had a wicked smile plastered on his face as he remarked, "See, Aizen-taichō? I told you this guy was trouble."

Aizen sighed softly.

"I suppose you're right this time, Gin," he said wearily. "Anyway, just take this man inside and lock him up in the holding cell."

"Certainly, sir," Gin replied, broadening his smile. Then, just like what Byakuya had done earlier, Gin simply dragged his subordinate by the collars. However, before he dragged the man inside, he stopped and turned to ask the captain, "Do you want me to do anything else with him after that?"

"No, Gin, you don't have to do anything else. We will interrogate him and decide his sentence after he wakes up. Now off you go," Aizen said and waved his lieutenant off. After Gin disappeared inside with that unconscious Shinigami, Aizen turned to Byakuya and gave him an apologetic look. "Anyway, I'm sorry for the trouble my subordinate caused, Kuchiki-kun. I'll make sure that his punishment fits the crime he committed."

"I'm not exactly the person you should say sorry to, am I, Aizen-taichō?"

Aizen nodded.

"That's true. Since you mention it, about that woman my subordinate harassed, did you happen to get her name? It's not that I don't trust your words, Kuchiki-kun, but I might need to ask her a few questions."

Byakuya shook his head slightly.

"She ran away before I could."

"I see. Never mind, then," Aizen said with a look that seemed like he was pondering about something. "I'm sure I'll still be able to get to the bottom of this somehow."

"I shall leave this matter to you then."

Once again, Aizen gave Byakuya a nod of his head.

"I have bothered you for long enough, so I will excuse myself now," Byakuya said and gave Aizen a slight bow of his head. "Good night, Aizen-taichō."

"Good night, Kuchiki-kun."

* * *

The first thing Byakuya did when he returned to the Kuchiki Mansion was heading to the room where a small shrine was set. He opened the double doors of the shrine to reveal a portrait of a woman with short black hair and sad blue eyes, his late wife—Hisana. Although it hurt less to look at her picture now that it had been a year since she passed, he still felt bereft whenever he came to visit her shrine.

"I might have found your sister, Hisana," Byakuya stated in a tender tone that he reserved for her ears only. "However, I couldn't even get her name. I've failed you again, haven't I?"

He sighed.

"Well, at least now I have some leads to look into, so I can assure you that we'll be able to find and confirm whether she's your sister soon."

Reaching his right hand out to his late wife's picture, he lightly ran his thumb over the outline of her face.

"It's a shame we didn't find her sooner so that you could have been reunited with her. Then, maybe you'd have been able to show me your real smile or you might still be here with me today."

Looking at the picture with a longing look in his gray eyes, Byakuya continued:

"I miss you, Hisana. I would follow you to the other world if I could, but seeing that I couldn't, I will be here to keep the promise I gave to you and protect your sister even if it's the last thing I do."

Silence filled the room as Byakuya spent his time just quietly looking at his late wife's photo while tracing his finger lightly on the picture frame.

A long moment had passed until Byakuya heard soft footsteps coming closer to the room, so he let his hand drop from the photo frame and turned over his shoulder to see who came to that part of the house at that time of the night.

He relaxed slightly when he saw that it was merely the old butler who passed by. However, he had to raise his eyebrow when he realized the old man was not just passing by and seemed to be there to find him as Seike stopped in front of the room and bowed to him.

"Pardon my interruption, Byakuya-sama. Ozaki-dono just reported in. He said you were expecting him."

Byakuya nodded.

When Seike mentioned 'Ozaki-dono' he was referring to Ozaki Shun, a faithful retainer who Byakuya had entrusted to lead a team to search for Hisana's sister since he first learned about said sister from his late wife. Ozaki was currently following a potential lead in the first district of North Rukongai; however, Byakuya immediately called him back after he saw that girl who bore striking resemblance of Hisana, so that the man would help him confirm whether or not she had any relation to Hisana.

"Let him know that I will see him in my study."

"Yes, Byakuya-sama."

With that, the butler left Byakuya alone in the room once again.

Turning his attention back to the picture of Hisana, Byakuya remarked, "I have to go now, so I will see you again later, Hisana."

Then he closed the doors of the shrine and headed for the study in order to see the person who just reported in.

* * *

When Byakuya arrived to his study, Ozaki had already been standing by the corner of the room, waiting for his arrival. The man respectfully bowed to Byakuya as a greeting.

Byakuya gave him a nod in response before he walked past Ozaki to his chair behind the desk. He furrowed his brows slightly at the sight the album that Kaede had asked the butler to pass to him earlier. Byakuya quickly slid it to the top right corner of the desk so it would be away from his view. Having done so, he sat down on his chair and then turned his attention back to one Ozaki Shun.

"Have a seat," Byakuya said, motioning to the chair on the other side of the desk. "I have two tasks for you and your team."

"What are they, Byakuya-sama?" Ozaki asked before he took the seat that Byakuya offered.

"I saw a woman today in the second district of South Rukongai," Byakuya began. "She looks almost identical to Hisana, except that she appears younger. I did not get her name, much less where she came from. Therefore, I want you to make it your priority to find out about that woman and see if she's related to Hisana."

"Yes, Byakuya-sama. I will work on that right away. What is the other task?"

"I want you to investigate the backgrounds of all those women in that album and report them to me," Byakuya said before he motioned his hand toward the album in question and gave the retainer a nod as the man reached out to grab it. "You can take that album with you and return it to me whenever you're done."

Ozaki opened the album and raised his eyebrow slightly, apparently realizing that it was some sort of matchmaking album. However, he made no comment about that fact and simply put that big album in the fold of his kimono.

"I will complete these tasks as soon as I can, Byakuya-sama."

"In that case, I won't waste any more of your time. You can go now."

"Then I shall take my leave, Byakuya-sama. Good night."

With that, Ozaki bowed down to Byakuya before he quietly left the room.

Once he saw that the retainer had left, Byakuya closed his eyes and sighed. After everything that happened that day, he had a feeling that it would be yet another night he wouldn't be able to get a proper sleep.

* * *

In another part of Seireitei, the woman whose details Byakuya was trying to get couldn't have had a sounder sleep even though she should have been shaken by the fact that she was harassed by a creepy Shinigami earlier. If she were to feel anything about that incident at all, it was anger by the fact that she didn't get to kick that Shinigami in the groin to avenge the fact that he had grabbed her wrist so hard it bruised.

Speaking of the bruise, it could clearly be seen on her pale skin in the next day, so Rukia decided to hide it by wrapping a handkerchief around her wrist so that no one would question her how she received the bruise. She then headed out to look for her friend, Abarai Renji, since Hinamori told her he had been looking for her in the day before.

It wasn't difficult to locate Renji in the campus's canteen since his flaming red hair stood out so much that no one would be able to miss it.

"Yo, Renji!" she said and waved at him as she approached to where the man was having his breakfast.

Since the man was still in the middle of stuffing his face with a pile of taiyaki, a fish-shaped cake filled with red bean paste, it took a while for Renji to gulp down what he was chewing before she arrived down his throat.

"Rukia! Where were you yesterday?"

Rukia gave him a shrug before she sat down on a seat across the table to his.

"What? You're not even gonna say good morning to me?" she asked. Since she knew taiyaki was Renji's favorite food, she decided to tease him a bit by picking up one taiyaki from Renji's plate and took a bite at it.

"Hey, that's mine! Go and get your own breakfast if you're hungry, midget."

"Don't call me midget, you stingy pineapple," Rukia said. "Che. You can have your taiyaki back. It isn't really that delicious anyway."

Rukia then reached out to place the taiyaki that she had already bitten back into Renji's plate; however, the red-haired man was quicker to put the plate out of her reach.

"You can have that one. Just don't put what you've already bitten in my plate, jeez! That's gross."

Rukia flashed Renji a smug smile.

"Anyway, I don't think I'll be filled by just one taiyaki, so I'll go and grab my own breakfast. Don't go anywhere yet."

With that, Rukia left the table and headed to get her own meal. It didn't take long until she returned, carrying a tray which contained a small bowl of rice, a plate of some kind of meat and a bowl of miso soup, and took the previous seat she had taken.

"So Hinamori-san said you were looking for me yesterday?" Rukia began after she sat down.

"Yeah, I was. I noticed plum blossoms were blooming, so I thought I'd invite you to go out and have a plum blossom viewing picnic or something like that, but I couldn't find you anywhere."

"Oh. I guess I forgot to tell you that I've taken more part-time jobs," Rukia explained. "Sorry about that."

"You took more jobs?" Renji asked, furrowing his brows. "Haven't you been working two part-time jobs already? What do you need so much extra money for anyway? It's not like you're one of those girls who waste money on clothes and make up."

Rukia rolled her eyes. Although she wanted to say that the reason she was working that many jobs was because she was saving up to buy him a birthday present, she didn't want to ruin the surprise. Therefore, she simply responded in a sarcastic tone, "Well, I'm sorry I'm not womanly enough for you. But as unwomanly as I am, I still have things I want to buy."

"Hey, I'm not saying that you're not womanly," Renji quickly noted. However, he took one quick look at his friend and then added, "Well, maybe you're not, but … ouch!"

Renji yelped as he was kicked in the shin under the table. He then bent slightly down to rub where he was kicked to relieve the pain.

"You might not have said it aloud, but you clearly think so," she accused.

Since Renji knew that she wouldn't believe him even if he tried to deny her accusation, he decided not to say anything at all and changed the subject entirely.

"Anyway, are you free later today?" Renji asked, sounding hopeful. "The flowers are still blooming so we can have a picnic today instead."

Rukia looked at Renji as though he had just grown some horns on his head.

"I never knew you're a flower viewing type," Rukia commented. "And just when you thought you knew somebody well."

Although she was just teasing him with the reply, a part of what she said was true. She thought she had known him well, as they had been friends since they were still children; however, after the rest of the friends they met in Inuzuri died and they decided to apply to the Shinō Academy, they gradually grew apart, especially since they were put in different classes since Renji was one of those advanced students while she was just an average student. Although Renji would tell her about his activities as an advanced student and about his new circle of friends, those stories only served to make her feel as if they were even further apart that sometimes Rukia couldn't help being afraid that someday they would become complete strangers to one another.

She wondered if that was how he felt as well, which was why he tried to bridge the gap by inviting her to view flowers with him even though that kind of activity probably didn't interest a person like him at all.

"Just answer me if you're you free or not."

Although she would love to join him, she also had to work that day. After all, that pair of goggles Renji always said he wanted was anything but cheap.

"I'm sorry, Renji, but I have to do another part-time job today. In fact, my shift will start in half an hour, so maybe some other day?"

Renji sighed softly, clearly disappointed.

"If you're not free, then never mind. I'd just ask Kira and Hinamori if they'd be interested," he said. "Hurry up and eat your food. It'd be bad if you're late for your job, right?"

* * *

It had been a slow day at the spice store Rukia was working as a part-timer, so all Rukia had been doing was arranging the shelf while the middle-aged woman who was the owner of the store was working at the register and receiving calls from customers.

"Rukia-chan," the owner suddenly called from where she was sitting. "Can you come over here for a moment?"

"Yes, Hana-san?" Rukia replied and made sure that the spice jar was well placed on the shelf before she made her way to the cash register.

"An important customer just called in and ordered ten boxes of premium spices. He wants us to deliver the goods today. However, Kei-kun is on leave, so can you deliver the goods for me, Rukia-chan?"

"Sure, Hana-san. No problem at all. Where do you want me to deliver them?"

"To the Kuchiki Mansion."

"That big house in the middle of the city?" Rukia asked, widening her eyes. Everyone in the city knew that the mansion belonged to one of the Five Great Noble Houses, and there were mentions of several Kuchikis in the Shinō Academy's history class. "Are you sure it's alright that I'm the one to deliver the goods? I mean, they're nobles and all, so…"

Rukia didn't finish her sentence, but Hana still got what the part-timer was thinking. She took a quick glance over Rukia's appearance before she replied:

"It will be fine, Rukia-chan. It's not like you'll have to meet any nobles in that family. You only have to deliver the goods to the butler of that mansion who will be expecting you at the gate. His name is Seike-san. He is a kind man, so you don't have to worry about meeting him."

"I see. Then should I pack the goods for delivery, Hana-san?"

"No, I'll do that myself," the owner replied. "Just wait here a moment."

* * *

It took a while for Rukia to make her way from the spice store to the Kuchiki Mansion since those spice boxes were quite heavy. Although she had seen that mansion several times before when she went looking around Seireitei when she had some free time from her lessons at the Shinō Academy and her part-time jobs, it was the first time she actually had business there, so Rukia wasn't quite sure if she should wait at the door or go in and ask for that "Seike-san".

Since she didn't want to be arrested for trespassing, Rukia decided to wait at the gate and hope that someone would come by soon; however, there was no sign that anyone would come after she had waited there for several minutes.

"Didn't Hana-san say Seike-san would be expecting me?" she wondered, frowning slightly. "How come there's no one around? I thought a noble house was supposed to have bunches of servants walking around all the time."

Feeling brave, Rukia decided to poke her head in, and the moment she did so, a guy in purple ninja-like costume suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"What are you doing?"

Rukia almost jumped out of her skin since she didn't expect anyone to suddenly appear before her.

"I have a delivery for Seike-san," she said. "Can you get him here for me?"

"Oh! You must have never delivered goods here before. You should go to the back gate instead. You should be able to find Seike-san there."

With that, the purple ninja guy disappeared from Rukia's sight before she could question him more about where she should deliver the goods.

"Right. The back gate," Rukia said through gritted teeth. "And how should I know which gate is the back gate when I don't even know which gate this one is?"

Sighing softly, Rukia decided she would just try the next gate she found and hoped that it would be the right one.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Kuchiki Mansion, Byakuya was heading out of the house. He was clad in a standard dark blue kimono and a black pair of hakama. The silk scarf and the kenseikan which would signify his rank as the head of the Kuchiki Family were in the safety of his bedroom as Byakuya planned to be out to Rukongai to train with his zanpakutō like the previous day and didn't see the use of wearing his family heirlooms out there.

He didn't expect that when he arrived to the gate, there would be a petite woman standing there, carrying a tower of boxes in her arms, much less that said woman would be the same woman he had rescued in the previous night—the one who bore so strong resemblance of his late wife that he had ordered his retainer to search for her.

"Ah, it's you!" was the first thing she said when she saw his face.

Byakuya winced at the way he was greeted, since from her voice, he was sure the woman would have pointed her finger at his face if she hadn't been carrying those boxes. Still, he was a little surprised by the indication that she managed to remember him even though she probably hadn't got a good look at his face in the night before.

He noticed how she suddenly went stiff as if she had come to realize that what she had said earlier was not the way she should have greeted a customer.

"I'm sorry, I meant, you must be Seike-san," she quickly corrected herself, using a more polite and respectful tone of voice this time.

Byakuya blinked twice. He wondered if he really had no aura of a nobleman that she would easily believe that he was a butler. In any case, it was clear to him that it was the first time she ever delivered anything to the Kuchiki Mansion, as she wouldn't have made that kind of mistake had she been there before.

It appeared Byakuya was too slow to react, so he missed the chance to correct her misunderstanding before she bowed down to him and then introduced herself.

"I am Rukia from Hana Kōshinryō. You've ordered ten boxes of our premium spices, so I'm here to make the delivery."

So her name was Rukia and she was working at the Kuchiki's regular spice shop for who knew how long. How was it possible that he never met her before the previous night when she was so close that he could as well say she was living right under his nose?

While Byakuya was in his reverie, Rukia balanced those spice boxes on her left arm and right knee as she let go of her right hand in order to take a piece of paper out of the fold of her kimono and then handed the paper to him.

"Please inspect the goods and stamp your personal seal on this paper as a proof of receipt."

Byakuya dazedly accepted the paper. He was uncertain if he should be offended or amused by the way she composed herself in front of him. Therefore, he decided against both and simply noted:

"You do realize, of course, that you could put those boxes down first."

"Ah, right, silly me!"

With that, she walked to carefully place the tower of boxes that she had been carrying down by the gate.

"I've never seen you around here before. How long have you been working for your shop?" Byakuya inquired as he quickly scanned the content in the paper.

"I've started working part-time there since last month," she replied. "However, I've never delivered anything to this house before, since that's normally Kei-san's job. He's on leave today, though, so the owner sent me here instead."

"I see."

"Anyway, please examine the goods and stamp your seal on the paper," Rukia requested again, obviously couldn't wait to return to her shop.

Since he was urged, Byakuya took the set of mitomein—an unregistered personal seal for daily, unofficial usage—out of the fold of his kimono and then stamped the seal on the paper before he handed the paper back to her without bothering to examine the goods.

Byakuya noticed the way the girl furrowed her brows slightly as she glanced over the paper he returned to her, and he suspected it was due to the fact that the name which was stamped down on the paper actually read Kuchiki instead of Seike as she might have expected.

For a moment there, he wondered if she would make a comment on that fact or she would simply let it pass, believing that as a butler, Seike would have an unofficial Kuchiki seal on his person in order to accept goods on the family's behalf. If she chose to ask, it would be the time for him to correct her misunderstanding, though he wasn't sure if she would believe him should he introduce himself as the head of the family, Kuchiki Byakuya, seeing as she seemed totally convinced that he was the butler.

However, Rukia didn't make any comment about the seal. She merely folded the paper and tugged it away inside the fold of her kimono before she asked, "Aren't you going to check the goods, Seike-san?"

The truth was even though Byakuya liked spicy food, he still wouldn't be able to tell if the boxes of spice Rukia delivered were actually of premium grade. However, he didn't think he should tell her so; therefore, he only gave her what he believed would be the most logical response:

"Your shop has been doing business with our house for a long time, so I doubt the owner would want to lose an important customer by cheating them out of their goods."

"Even so, you should still check," Rukia said in a tone that made it sound like she was lecturing him for his carelessness. "You can't be too careful these days."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Anyway, thank you for choosing to buy our shop's spices," she remarked. Then she bowed down lowly and added, "and also, thank you very much for helping me last night."

"You're welcome."

Rukia flashed him a bright smile before she gave him yet another short bow before she was off.

Byakuya drew a sharp breath once she was gone from his line of sight. He would need to get a confirmation on whether or not that woman was related to his dead wife, since he was certain that he wouldn't be able to sleep at night until he could get to the bottom of it. Yet, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do once everything became clear.

Letting out yet another sigh, Byakuya then dug inside of his kimono sleeve and pulled out a soul phone before he dialed a certain number.

"Hello, Ozaki. It's me," he said as soon as his call was received. "I want you to run a background check on a Rukia from Hana Kōshinryō and report everything you can find to me as soon as possible."


	3. The Turning Point

A/N: Thanks to all who expressed their thoughts and supports for this story. You know the pacing of the story is slow when it takes three chapters to get to where the summary is at, but hey, at least it gets there, right? I don't know if this is something you expect to see or not, but I still hope you'll enjoy reading nonetheless. In any case, please let me know what you think through review, and of course alert and favorite are also welcome. Till next time!

* * *

**Chapter 3: The Turning Point**

"I don't get it! How could you have been placed in an advanced class when you can't even cast a basic hadō spell without it blowing up in your face?"

Rukia spoke while she was chewing on a huge triangular rice ball which was wrapped by nori seaweed and filled with pickled plums. She was sitting on the ground of the practice field under the shade of one pine tree, watching her friend, Abarai Renji, try and fail at casting a certain destruction spell.

"There's nothing basic about casting a hadō," Renji returned, obviously irritated by his friend's comment.

A huge chunk of Renji's red hair was burnt while his face was covered in dirt and smoke as a result of a spell being exploded in his face. If he hadn't already shaved his eyebrows and replaced them with tattoos, he would have surely lost his eyebrows then.

Rukia rolled her eyes.

"It is basic alright. There's a reason why Byakurai is just hadō number 4 and not something higher," she remarked. "Let's face it, Renji, you suck at kidō."

"Are you saying that you can do better?"

"Of course."

"Show me then," Renji challenged, turning to fully face her with arms akimbo.

"I'm still eating, you idiot," Rukia responded, waving the half eaten rice ball in front of him to emphasize her point.

"Ha, do you really think you can get away with that stupid excuse?" Renji asked, glaring at her in a hope that by doing so she would accept his challenge and actually showed him her kidō skill or lack thereof. "Unless you can cast that spell, you have no right to criticize my skill, Normal Student-san."

Rukia groaned and looked at him with her eyes narrowed. Renji hit the raw nerve when he mentioned the fact that she was an ordinary student unlike him who was given an advanced placement in the Shinō Academy even though they signed up to the Academy at the same time.

She then muttered something under her breath, and just as Renji was about to say something else to rile her up a little more, she pointed her right index and middle finger at Renji's general direction and then shot out white lightning.

Renji instinctively dodged the spell although, judging from where Rukia fired her spell, it wouldn't have hit him even if he didn't move away. Even so, he still glared at her.

"What the hell, Rukia? That was dangerous!"

Giving her friend a sadistic smirk, she responded, "Well, you asked for it."

"You could have hit me!"

"Yeah, I could have but I didn't, did I? Now just admit that you suck and I might take a pity on you and give you a few pointers so you wouldn't fail your upcoming test."

Renji grumbled under his breath. Although he knew that kidō was never his strong suit and wasn't afraid to say so to his other classmates, Rukia was the only person he didn't want to admit that to. Perhaps it was because he always wanted to impress her despite the fact that she was hardly ever impressed by anything he did.

"Che, like I'd ever need your help," Renji said stubbornly.

Although she knew she shouldn't take his words to the heart since he was probably just trying to protect his own ego, she still couldn't help rolling her eyes and commented:

"Fine. Since you don't seem to appreciate my kidō skill, I don't see why I should waste the time of my lunch break to sit here and watch you blow up your own face. You can fail that kidō test of yours for all I care."

With that said, she finished the rice ball and then stood up. She pat her red hakama to remove any dirt that might have stuck there when she was sitting on the ground and then started walking away.

Seeing that his friend actually started to walk away, Renji realized he should have kept his big mouth shut instead of trying to act all high and mighty to protect his own ego, so he quickly called her back.

"Oi, come on, Rukia! I was just kidding. I know your kidō skill is better than mine, so stay and help me, would you?"

"Is that really what you say when you beg for someone's help, Renji?" Rukia asked, turning around to give her friend a glare.

"Please? I won't be able to pass the kidō exam without your help," Renji added. "I'll buy you dinner?"

"It's better be a nice one…"

And so the two Shinō Academy's students began their kidō practice without caring much about the heat of the glaring midday sun.

* * *

Unbeknownst to them, their actions were being observed by one Kuchiki Byakuya who was standing on the second floor of the library building which was located not too far from the training field. Although he came to the academy for an entirely different matter and didn't plan to look for Rukia, much less spy on her activities; his eyes somehow found her on that field so he decided to stand there and watch her for a moment.

He had received a report on her background from Ozaki since a couple of days earlier. Not much was found about her past aside from the fact that she was from Inuzuri and the closest person she had to a family was that red-haired friend of hers, Abarai Renji. The two of them enrolled to the Shinō Academy in the previous fall in order to seek for a better kind of life than what Inuzuri could offer.

She registered into the Shinō Academy under the name Nanashi Rukia, which made Byakuya wonder if she intended to imply that her family name was literally unknown. In any case, she passed the entrance exam and was placed in class 8 where she studied the first-year program and earned average grades. Although she was a few months shy of completing her first-year program, she had yet to adjust to the life at the campus and hadn't made many friends.

On her free time from the academy, she was working on three part-time jobs: one was a shop assistant at the Hana Kōshinryō during weekend days, the other one was a waitress at an izakaya in the second district of South Rukongai during weekend nights, and the last one was a kitchen-hand at a medium-sized restaurant in Seireitei on Tuesday and Thursday nights. However, it was unknown as to why she needed to work that many jobs when she lived a rather modest lifestyle and didn't seem to need anything extravagant.

Despite what Byakuya's retainer had found, it was still unconfirmed whether or not Rukia was related to Byakuya's dead wife as the result on the comparison of Rukia's genetic data with Hisana's still had yet to come out.

'_What do you plan to do if the result is positive? And you and I both know it will be.'_

The question came from the spirit of his zanpakutō, Senbonzakura, who was also watching the girl and her friend through Byakuya's eyes.

Byakuya didn't need to ask his zanpakutō why he asked such a question, since he knew that Senbonzakura knew exactly what promise he had given to Hisana as Senbonzakura was also there at that time, watching everything unfold from the inner world.

'_I don't know, Senbonzakura,'_ Byakuya admitted, knowing that there was no use in lying to the zanpakutō.

'_You don't know?' _the zanpakutō returned in disbelief.

'_I don't know,' _the Shinigami insisted. '_The most obvious choice if that woman really turns out to be Hisana's sister is to adopt her into the family as my sister.'_

_'But what?' _Senbonzakura asked, knowing that Byakuya was hardly hesitant in his decision making; therefore, there had to be some reasons why he couldn't make up his mind. _'Are you worried that the elders wouldn't let you?'_

'_Their opinions are the least of my concern,' _Byakuya replied. '_Even if they should disapprove, I know how to silence them.'_

'_Then what's the problem?'_ Senbonzakura prompted.

'_Look at her, Senbonzakura,' _Byakuya said as he once again turned his focus to the scene of Rukia and Renji training their kidō together.

In his view, Rukia and Renji were shouting something at one another before Rukia narrowed her eyes and then kicked the man who was twice her size in the shin, causing him to yelp and then rub his shin in order to relieve the pain.

'_Does she seem like someone who can fit into the family?'_

'_Given enough time and practice, her manners can be refined,'_ Senbonzakura commented. Even though he didn't exactly say it, Byakuya could still tell that the zanpakutō wanted him to compare that situation with the time when he insisted to wed Hisana.

In a way, Senbonzakura was right; but somehow, Byakuya believed the zanpakutō missed the point of his true concern. And since Senbonzakura couldn't see it himself, Byakuya didn't think he would understand even if Byakuya were to fully explain.

_'Perhaps,' _Byakuya replied noncommittally as he watched how Rukia was laughing about with Renji as if nothing in the world could worry her. _'But will she truly be happy?'_

'_What's not to be happy about? As a Kuchiki, she could have everything she ever wanted. She wouldn't have to work all those part-time jobs nor would she have to eat those cheap food. She'll have a good family and a secure, comfortable life.'_

Byakuya kept his gray eyes on the field where Rukia and Renji continued training. The boy's spell would occasionally blow up in his face and Rukia would yell at him, then they would argue for a moment before they would start over again.

He supposed if he hadn't met her and seen the way she interacted with that red-haired friend of hers and only received a report on how she was living in general, adopting her into the family as his sister would have been an easy decision. After all, if that had been the case, then she would have been nothing more than a name on the paper, a promise he had given to his dead wife. However, he had met her, and somehow that caused him to have a second thought about everything he had planned.

'_I still don't know, Senbonzakura,' _Byakuya insisted in a tone that said he didn't want to discuss it anymore.

He could hear Senbonzakura's displeased groan in the back of his mind just before the zanpakutō faded into the background as if he didn't feel like discussing anything with Byakuya anymore.

Byakuya closed his eyes and sighed. He supposed one thing that he and his zanpakutō had in common was that they were both very stubborn although Senbonzakura tended to be more rash and reacted more strongly when things didn't go his way.

* * *

When Byakuya opened his eyes again and turned away from the practice field in order to leave the building, he saw a man with silver hair who always had that same unreadable smile on his face—Ichimaru Gin.

That everlasting smile of the lieutenant of the Fifth Division was widened the moment their eyes met—or so Byakuya would like to believed they did, since it was impossible to tell with the way Gin's eyes seemed to always be closed. When he came to think about it again, he didn't think he had ever seen that man's eyes open at all. In any case, Gin waved to him as a greeting.

"Ah! Good afternoon, rokubantai-fukutaichō-san!" the man greeted heartily. "What brings you here today? I don't think it's the Sixth Division's turn to inspect the academy yet."

"I only came to borrow a few books," Byakuya responded, "and I'm now on my way out."

Anyone else would have cringed at Byakuya's reply as it could be implied that the noble didn't want any business to do with them. However, Ichimaru Gin wasn't just anyone else. In fact, unlike other people who often thought Byakuya was unfriendly and unapproachable, that man had no qualms about coming to greet him whenever their paths crossed. Gin once said it was because they were around the same age and they were also in the same rank in the Gotei 13, so they should stick together. However, Byakuya never did become friends with that man, and it was not because Gin was just a peasant from Rukongai but it was because there was something about that man that Byakuya didn't quite trust.

"Oh, I see. For a moment there I thought you're here to scout new talents to your division, I mean, you were watching one of the stars of the freshman year."

Since he already knew that the person he was actually watching didn't stand out at all so there was no way for her to be called a star of the freshman year, he could only conclude that Ichimaru Gin assumed he was observing Abarai Renji.

"I suppose you could say I was watching him."

Although it wasn't the whole truth, Byakuya supposed that would do. It wasn't anyone's business whom he was actually watching, much less someone he didn't fully trust.

"He seems to have some talents, doesn't he?" Gin noted. "I guess, it's a good thing he's still just in the first year and won't be available to be recruited for a few more years."

"Good for whom?" Byakuya couldn't help asking.

"Eh? For me, of course. After all, I want talented people like him as my subordinates but if I recruit him now, he'll end up as a member of the Fifth Division when I'm planning to take the taishu test and apply for the captain position in the Third Division," Gin remarked.

Although Byakuya should be surprised by the news that he was not the only one who was preparing to take the captain proficiency test, he couldn't find it in him to actually care. After all, it wasn't as if Ichimaru Gin was after the same position as Byakuya was.

"Is that so?"

Byakuya supposed their conversation would end there, since he only gave Gin a curt reply and didn't give him any good way to continue the conversation.

"Yeah, but anyway, I should let you be on your way," Gin remarked, realizing how Byakuya once again not-so-subtly tried to end the conversation. "Meanwhile, I'll just get inside and find some interesting book to read while I wait for Aizen-taichō to finish giving a lecture on calligraphy."

"Good day, then," Byakuya said.

"Oh, and by the way, I think I should let you know that we have punished that Shinigami—you know, the one who you turned in for assaulting a civilian. He won't be anyone's problem anymore."

"I see. That's good."

"See you around, Kuchiki-san."

Since he had already bid the man farewell earlier, Byakuya saw no point in doing so again. Therefore, he gave the silver-haired lieutenant a slight nod of his head before he continued on his way out, unable to care less about what Ichimaru Gin would do afterward.

* * *

The rest of the day passed by very slowly for Byakuya, as there was not much to be done at the Sixth Division except for having a meeting with all the Sixth Division's seat officers to discuss a training plan for all of their unseated subordinates as well as discussing a recruitment plan in preparation for when the sixth-year students would graduate from the Shinō Academy in the upcoming summer.

He had to admit that his mind hadn't really been on his work lately and he supposed the third seat of his division, Shirogane Ginjirō, noticed it; however, the man hadn't voiced any concerns yet, possibly due to the fact that Byakuya still managed to get all of his work done.

Byakuya wasn't sure if he should feel relaxed when he reached back home. Ever since his wife died, he felt the mansion became much less like home and more like a cage where he was surrounded by the people who called themselves his family and yet seemed to care less about his feelings than they did their wealth and status.

In any case, Lord Kuchiki made his way to his chamber, acknowledging greeting from each servant he met along the way with a nod. The more he thought about it, the more he couldn't help feeling that those servants might care more for him as a person than all of his family members actually did.

Speaking of care, he was greeted by Seike who was waiting for him by his bedroom door, carrying a small tray which contained a glass of what appeared to be plum wine. Sometimes Byakuya wondered if the old man had some kind of tracker on him, since the butler seemed to always be able to locate him and never failed to come to greet him within five minutes after he returned to the house. Then again, his late grandfather, Kuchiki Ginrei, wouldn't have selected that man to be the butler if he wasn't capable of at least that.

"Welcome home, Byakuya-sama," said the old butler before he bowed to Byakuya and offered him the drink.

"Ozaki-dono dropped by this afternoon and he asked me to pass you a letter," the butler reported once Byakuya gingerly accepted the drink. He then dug into the fold of his kimono and brought out one envelope which was sealed with red sealing wax which was impressed with Ozaki's personal seal.

Byakuya accepted the envelope. He could tell even before he opened the envelope that it contained the result of genetic comparison of Rukia and Hisana. However, instead of rushing to open it to see the result, Byakuya placed it in the fold of his kimono as if it didn't contain anything urgent.

"Thank you."

"I have already prepared the bath, so you can take a bath whenever you feel like. Dinner will be ready at seven. Would you like me to bring it here when it's ready?"

"That would be nice, thank you," Byakuya replied. "You may go now."

"Then I will not bother you any longer, Byakuya-sama."

With that, Seike gave Byakuya yet another bow before he took his leave.

Byakuya sighed softly before he entered his bedroom without bothering to close the door behind. He removed his zanpakutō from his person and then placed it on a sword stand at the wall before he walked to the vanity table.

He took a sip of the plum wine before he placed the glass down on a vanity table. He then removed the lieutenant arm band and placed it in the side drawer.

Byakuya took off his heirloom scarf and folded it neatly before he placed it in the drawer with the armband. Then he removed the kenseikan hair ornament and placed it back in its container which was set in front of the mirror. Sometimes he couldn't help wondering if his ancestors had a twisted sense of humor for choosing a scarf and a heavy hair ornament as the family's heirlooms, for there were times when he felt that his responsibilities as the head of his prestigious clan was like an invisible noose around his neck and a strange weight on his head.

Chuckling at the thought, Byakuya left the vanity and walked to a low writing table before he sat there. Once he was seated, Byakuya took the envelope he received from Seike out of the fold of his kimono. He gingerly removed the seal and carefully pulled out a thin piece of paper. He didn't take long to read the whole content, and after he was done, he closed his eyes. Although he had already placed his zanpakutō by the wall away from where he was sitting, he could still hear Senbonzakura in the back of his mind humming something that sounded very much like 'I told you so'.

* * *

When Seike came to serve dinner, Byakuya was still holding that piece of paper in his hand. The elderly butler didn't make any comment regarding the troubled look on Byakuya's face; however, he eyed his master with concern.

He was preparing to step back and leave Byakuya to his thought, but before he could do as he planned, Byakuya suddenly asked him the one question he never asked before.

"Was Hisana happy here?"

The butler blinked twice at the question.

"I know it's already too late to ask, but answer me anyway," Byakuya added.

Seike thought about how he should answer his master. It was not the first time Byakuya questioned him about how Hisana was doing in the house when he was not there, but in the past, Byakuya made the inquiry to make sure his wife could adjust to the life in the family. This time, however, Seike couldn't fathom why Byakuya should demand to know.

"There were some difficulties, of course, but Hisana-sama was not unhappy."

"Which means she wasn't happy either," Byakuya concluded from the roundabout way his butler answered the question.

"I wouldn't go so far as to say she was not happy, Byakuya-sama."

"How was she treated by my family when I wasn't around?" Byakuya asked again, and when he didn't get the answer right away, he prompted, "Answer me honestly this time, Seike. Hisana is no longer here, so you don't have to sugarcoat things to cover for her or for anyone else."

Seike sighed softly. He wasn't surprised that Byakuya knew that he hadn't told him the whole truth when Byakuya questioned him about how the family treated his wife back when Hisana was still alive. After all, his master had to be blind if he couldn't tell that his family didn't fully welcome his wife. However, for some reasons unknown to Seike, Byakuya had never demanded to hear the whole truth before and simply let it go as if he was content with the answer. Therefore, he had to wonder why Byakuya suddenly demanded to know the whole truth at that time when the lady had already passed away, and Byakuya could not go back in time to change anything even if something bad actually happened.

"If you wish to know, Byakuya-sama, your family generally gave Hisana-sama cold shoulders and acted as if she did not exist. They would never look her way and if she greeted them, they would simply ignore her."

"I figured as much," Byakuya remarked before he closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I failed as a husband, didn't I? I gave her a vow to love her and to protect her from all the harms, but I couldn't even protect her from my own family."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Byakuya-sama," Seike replied. "You did your best to look out for her; but if you were to directly confront your family regarding how they treated your wife, it wouldn't have changed anything, except it might stir more troubles for her. Hisana-sama understood this as well, which was why she asked me and other servants to tell you she was treated well, so you wouldn't have to worry about her. To quote Hisana-sama, Byakuya-sama already treated her well enough to make up for the rest of his family so she did not want to bother you with something trivial."

Opening his gray eyes again, Byakuya looked away from Seike and to the garden outside.

"I still failed her," Byakuya concluded.

"Byakuya-sama..."

Seike didn't have a chance to try to convince Byakuya otherwise, when the master of the house cut him off with yet another question:

"Say, Seike, do you think Hisana would have still been alive today if I hadn't married her and brought her into this family?"

Seike furrowed his brows. He didn't like that question, nor did he liked the way his master sounded when he uttered the sentence.

"Well, that is not—" Seike cut himself off as he realized that Byakuya didn't really need to know his answer to that question, as he was probably on one of his moods to blame everything on himself yet again. "Byakuya-sama, if I may so inquire, what is it that you really intend to find out from asking all these questions?"

"My intention is not of your concerns," Byakuya responded dismissively. His eyes still lingered on the garden. "However, thanks to your answers, I can finally make up my mind."

* * *

Renji was running around the campus, looking for Rukia. He had just passed an important kidō exam and he had Rukia to thank for it, so he couldn't wait to relay that happy news to her. However, Rukia was nowhere to be found even though she was supposed to still be in the campus as she didn't have to do any part-time job that he knew of on that day.

"Hey, have you seen Rukia?" he asked some random guy whom he recognized as Rukia's classmate.

"I think she was summoned to the student administration building," the guy replied.

Renji furrowed his brows. "Why would she be summoned there?"

"Who knows?" the guy responded with a shrug.

"Yeah, whatever, thanks for letting me know."

And with that, Renji ran toward the student administration building as he couldn't wait one more minute to tell her the good news even though it meant that she would demand him to treat her to a good meal in return for helping him prepare for said test.

Once he arrived to his destination, Renji kept asking around for Rukia until some student finally pointed to a certain meeting room which she saw Rukia entered earlier.

It could be said that Renji was an impatient man, as he didn't bother to knock on the door before he bust in, calling for her as he did, "Rukia! Guess what, I just passed the second test, if I pass another one, I'll—"

He froze and stopped speaking in the middle of his sentence as soon as he realized she wasn't alone in the room, but instead the academy's principal was in there with her.

"Well, then, since your friend is here for you, you should go with him. Again, congratulations, Nanashi-kun."

With that the principal headed to the door in order to leave the room. Renji gave the man a bow since he was, after all, a principal. Then he rushed to Rukia's side.

"What's going on, Rukia?" he asked, noticing the weird expression on his friend's face. "Why did the principal call you here?"

That expression hadn't left Rukia's face when she turned to look at Renji and replied: "Well, it seems I've caught the attention of some lonely old nobleman, so he offers to be my benefactor until I graduate from the academy."

"Huh?" Renji asked, blinking. "You mean the principal?"

"Not the principal, you dope!" Rukia replied, finally her expression returned to normal. "He was just passing the message from that nobleman. Here, take a look."

With that, Rukia shoved a piece of paper she had been holding to Renji's chest, so Renji had no choice but to accept it.

Renji could tell from the moment his finger touched the paper that it was of a high quality and when he brought the paper up to look at what was written on it, he could smell a faint scent of cherry blossom on it.

The letter was beautifully calligraphed in black ink, which read:

"_**To Nanashi Rukia-kun,**_

_**When you receive this letter, the principal should have already explained to you about my intention to be your benefactor during the time you are a student in the Shinō Academy.**_

_**At this moment, you would probably wonder why I especially chose to grant this scholarship to you instead of choosing one of the top students or the ones that have more financial needs than yourself. Therefore, I shall be honest and tell you the truth that I chose you out of my own selfish reason.**_

_**I have recently lost my wife whom I love dearly and you look very similar to the way she did when she was around your age. When I first saw you, it was as if I saw her alive again. Therefore, after I learned that you were in need of money that you had to do several part-time jobs a week, I couldn't help feeling that I should do something to help you.**_

_**I'm certain that my offer may come as a surprise and may seem too suspicious for you; however, I would like to assure you that I made this offer out of an honest intention and that I do not wish for anything from you in return for this offer that I make, except for knowing that you will have a better living than you do now and could focus your full attention on your lessons in the academy.**_

_**I sincerely hope you shall accept this humble scholarship.**_

_**Sincerely,**__**"**_

The writer of the letter didn't sign his name at the end of the letter nor did he stamp down any personal seal that would reveal his actual name. Instead, what was stamped in red ink at the end of the letter was a small cherry blossom emblem.

"The guy is right, this really seems suspicious," Renji commented. "I mean, why would a guy want to give some random girl his money without wanting anything at all in return? Are you sure he's not some perverted old man who preys on young women?"

"I don't think the principal would agree to pass his message and put good words for him if the guy is actually a perv."

Although Rukia had a point, Renji was still unsure about it.

"They could be in cahoots, you know? Besides, which part of the letter convinced you that this guy is actually some harmless lonely old man anyway?"

"The part that said I looked like his wife when she was my age, which means the wife has to already be old and thus he too must also be old, unless of course he's some cougar hunter, which also means that I'm out of his hunting zone anyway."

Renji laughed at his friend's response.

"You might be right," he agreed. "If he's still young, he'd probably not have this kind of thought and he'd most likely just move on and date some other women already."

"Exactly," Rukia said. "Besides, he doesn't ask for anything from me in return for this scholarship at all, not even to meet or to write him some letters."

Renji shrugged.

"I still feel this is too good to be true, but hey, maybe luck is finally on your side this time, midget! You get an old guy who promises to fund you through the academy, so you don't have to work your ass off with all those part-time jobs anymore. So accept his offer and let's pray that this guy won't die of old age before you actually graduate!"

Rukia hit Renji upside the head. "What do you mean? Don't you put a curse on him, idiot."

"Ouch!" Renji cried and rubbed the back of his head where Rukia just hit before he turned to glare at her. "I'd say he had already been cursed if he was once married to a woman who looked like you."

In response to her friend's insult, Rukia kicked him in his backside.

"I will have you know that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder," she said, glaring at him, "and you, Renji, have a bad taste."

With that, Rukia walked away from the room, leaving Renji behind while he once again had to rub the place where she kicked just to relieve the pain.


	4. And A Butterfly Flaps Its Wings

A/N: Many thanks to all who read, reviewed, liked and/or subscribed to this story. I apologize for not replying to your reviews and for taking a bit longer than usual to update. This chapter doesn't progress as much as I'd like it to be, but I guess some foundation needed to be created for a relationship to build upon. (That, or my writing style is just slow in general.) Anyway, please feel free to let me know how you like or dislike the story so far. Till next time.

* * *

**Chapter 4: And A Butterfly Flaps Its Wings**

It was a fine-weather day when Captain Aizen made his way down the Fifth Division's corridor past the training ground. He was on his way to meet Captain Tōsen Kaname at the Ninth Division's compound as the blind captain had invited him to have tea with him.

Aizen hadn't made it out of the Fifth Division's main building when he spotted his second-in-command sitting on the porch while holding what appeared to be a hell butterfly between his thumb and forefinger.

Gin was holding a butterfly by its body and watching as it flapping its wings in an attempt to escape from his fingers.

"I hope you know that we don't condone animal cruelty in this division, Gin," Aizen said in way of greeting, causing the silver-haired lieutenant to turn his attention to him and then gave him his perpetual smile.

"Good morning, Aizen-taichō," he said. "I thought you'd be at Tōsen-san's already."

Instead of replying to Gin's comment, Aizen simply asked a question of his own, "What are you doing with that butterfly, by the way?"

"Oh, this?" Gin asked, looking back at the butterfly which was still trying to escape from his hold. "It's an untrained hell butterfly that got loose when the new recruits opened the cage to feed all butterflies earlier this morning. They're still looking for it, obviously, so I thought I'd prank them a little by keeping it here with me while they search around the whole compound for this little guy."

Aizen shook his head at his lieutenant's plan.

"And you keep complaining about how our subordinates don't seem to like you," Aizen remarked.

Gin laughed in that little evil way of his.

"Well, one has to play a bad guy to your good guy image, Aizen-taichō," Gin noted lightly. "Besides, if they get this butterfly back so easily, they wouldn't learn to be more careful the next time they handle the butterflies, would they? You might as well say I'm being cruel to be kind."

"I'd say you just enjoy seeing people squirm so much that you'd use any excuse to make it so that they do," Aizen remarked, not buying the excuse even for a second. After all, he knew his lieutenant too well. "Now seriously, Gin, just return the butterfly to them so that they could spend their time doing more useful tasks than running around searching for one butterfly."

The smile on Gin's face faltered slightly at the comment.

"You just have to take the fun out of everything, don't you, Aizen-taichō?" he whined. "Oh, well, I'll return it to them. In an hour, that is."

Aizen sighed softly, but he didn't make any further comment on it, knowing that regardless of what he might have said to the man, Gin would still have it his own way. And though normally he wouldn't tolerate any insubordination from any of his underlings despite how kind he might have appeared, he always made Gin a special case ever since the first day he took that man under his wings.

"By the way, Aizen-taichō," Gin continued, looking at the butterfly with his head tilted to one side. "Do you think it's true that when a butterfly flaps its wings here, it could cause a storm in the world of the living in two weeks from now?"

Aizen gave Gin a peculiar look.

"You're not planning to start a storm in the world of the living with that butterfly, are you, Gin? Because if that's your plan, you will be in for a big disappointment."

"But it wouldn't hurt to try, would it?" Gin countered.

Aizen sighed softly.

"It's just a metaphor," Aizen noted. "A theory that a small, insignificant change in one place may result in vast differences in other place in later state. But I'm sure you've known that already."

Gin thought about it for a moment before he asked, "Like, if a student we plan to convince to join our division chose to join any division but ours, it could result in a failure of our entire scheme?"

Aizen narrowed his brown eyes at his lieutenant's words.

"What brings about such question?"

Still not letting go of the butterfly, Gin replied:

"Well, I met rokubantai-fukutaichō, Kuchiki Byakuya-san, at the Shinō Academy the other day and he seemed to be interested in one of the students that we're having our eyes on."

Although Aizen didn't seem too concerned by that news, he still asked just out of curiosity, "Which one?"

"The red-haired one, Abarai Renji," Gin replied. "Would that be any problem to us, taichō?"

Aizen didn't spend any time to think about all consequences that could come from the fact that a certain lieutenant of the Sixth Division was also interested in one of the students Aizen planned to recruit before he responded:

"No, not all. In fact, it'd be fine even if he was interested in all of them. After all, it proves that they really do have potentials. Besides, if I really need to include all of those kids in my plan, they'll fall into my grasp regardless of what anyone else might have wanted."

"So we don't need to be concerned about Kuchiki Byakuya-san?"

Aizen allowed his mind to play back the memories he had of the head of the Kuchiki family before he smiled.

"Kuchiki-kun has the potential to become the strongest leader his clan has ever had if those old fools he called his elders would let him spread his wings and explore such potential. However, right now, he's just a broken man and all his family does is trying to break him further, so he won't become a hindrance to our plan anytime soon," he remarked. "But if you're worried, Gin, you can always try to get close to him and spy on his moves. After all, it'll give you something to do so you won't have to play too many pranks on our subordinates."

Gin laughed at Aizen's suggestion.

"I'm not playing pranks on them because I have nothing to do, Aizen-taichō."

"Oh, I know," Aizen replied. "Anyway, I'll be off now. Don't forget to return that butterfly, Gin."

With that, Aizen waved at his lieutenant and continued on his way out of the Fifth Division.

* * *

In another part of Seireitei, Rukia was sitting on her bed in the Shinō Academy's dormitory with a kinpū—a hand-folded money envelope closed with a stiff handmade decorative tie—set on her laps. She had gone to see the principal earlier the day to tell him that she would be pleased to accept the offer from the anonymous nobleman; and thus, the principal handed her the envelope which her benefactor had entrusted to him to pass to her as if he had already known she would not reject the offer.

'He asked me to tell you that if the money he provided for you was not enough to cover all of your monthly expenses, you could pass him a message through me,' the principal added after he handed her the envelope.

Rukia hadn't opened the envelope right away and simply returned to her dorm room in order to open it. She didn't expect that there would be much money inside the envelope, since her benefactor had mentioned in his letter that it was just a humble amount. Therefore, Rukia almost dropped the envelope to the ground after she opened it and saw the amount of money that was placed inside that envelope.

If she opened the envelope when she was still in the presence of the principal, she might have already asked him to tell her benefactor that what he thought might not be enough to cover her monthly expenses was more than enough to cover for at least three months worth of her expenses. Then again, she supposed those rich noble people wouldn't really know how normal people actually lived their lives.

Holding the envelope close to her chest, she closed her eyes and smiled happily. With the money that was given to her, she could quit all those part-time jobs and would still have more than enough money to buy herself good meals every day and even save some for buying Renji a birthday present.

"How could I ever thank you enough, Kanzan-dono?" she wondered, looking at the money envelope in her hand.

Since she felt that it would be too cold and impersonal to keep referring to her benefactor as an anonymous benefactor, Rukia decided to give him a nickname based on the little information she knew about him. Due to the fact that he used a cherry blossom as his seal, she believed it would be best to use a name that was related to such flower. Therefore, she chose to call him by the name "Kanzan", which was a type of pink cherry blossoms and, to her, sounded more masculine than the name Sakura.

"Well, you may not want to reveal your identity to me, but I'll still do my best with my study so that I'll become an honor student and later a renowned Shinigami so that you can be proud of me, so please watch me from now on, Kanzan-dono."

* * *

Rukia was running around the campus, looking for Renji. Since she had received a generous sum of money from the man she dubbed as Kanzan, she was hoping to invite him out to have a good lunch with her to celebrate.

She found Renji in the middle of the hallway to the main lecture theater. He was carrying a large pouch on his shoulder and also had a katana clad on his obi sash.

From the way he looked, Rukia assumed that he was about to go out on another training session that only the students in the advanced class had the privilege to go. For a moment there, she couldn't help feeling jealous of that fact, but then she decided not to dwell on such feeling and called out to him.

"Oi, Renji!"

The red-haired man turned to the direction of her voice.

"Hey, Rukia, what's up?"

Instead of telling him that she wanted to have lunch with him, she asked, "Do you advanced students have a special training again?"

Upon hearing her question, Renji widened his eyes. He then gave Rukia a sheepish look before he remarked, "Don't tell me I actually forgot to tell you about this."

Rukia narrowed her eyes when she looked at him and the look was enough to tell Renji that, yes, he actually forgot.

Renji scratched his chin as if he was wondering how he managed to forget to tell her about his plan when he usually told her everything about anything that happened to him, especially if it meant he could show off to her a little.

"So what haven't you told me?" she pressed.

"Well, you remember those three tests I told you about?"

"Yeah, and I also helped you prepared for the second one," Rukia replied, "what about them?"

"You see, any students who pass the first two tests get to go to an intensive training camp for one whole week to learn more about zanjutsu, you know, the art of wielding a zanpakutō. After that, we'll come back to take the third test. If we pass this third test, we'll be advanced to the second year course right away."

Rukia blinked at the explanation. "And you plan to tell me this when?"

Afraid of his friend's wrath, Renji quickly responded:

"Look, Rukia, it's not like I meant to keep it from you. It's just that I didn't think I would pass those tests at first. I was going to tell you when the result was announced but then there was this thing about you getting an offer from some weird ass benefactor, so it just escaped me."

Rukia pursed her lips. Although she should be congratulating Renji for the achievement, she couldn't help feeling somewhat depressed at the same time because every accomplishment he made took them a little further apart.

Renji sighed softly. Guilt was written all over his face for having forgotten to share such an important information with his best friend.

"Anyway, I still haven't passed the third test yet, so—"

"So you'll do your best to past that test as well," she said, putting on her best supportive face.

She might have been jealous of his accomplishment at times and she might have also felt depressed that ever since they entered the Shinō Academy, she and Renji kept growing apart. However, in the end, she still wanted what was best for him. So she would literally kick his ass if he were to consider holding himself back for her sake.

Renji gave Rukia a somewhat uncertain look, so she glared back at him.

"I'll kick your ass if you fail," she added.

"Right."

Seeing that Renji's classmates had already called for him, Rukia waved her hand in a gesture for him to go.

"Your friends are calling for you now, so you'd better go."

"Yeah, I'll be back on Sunday, so I'll see you then?"

Putting on her best nonchalant face, she shrugged.

"Maybe, maybe not. I also have a training plan of my own. Who knows? When you get back, my skills might have already surpassed yours."

Renji rolled his eyes at that.

"Yeah, right, whatever. See you later, Rukia."

With a wave of his hand, Renji ran after his classmates who had gone without him, leaving Rukia behind to watch him leave.

Once Renji was out of her sight, Rukia sighed softly. Although she sometimes felt as if her only friend was slowly slipping away from her, feeling sad or disappointed wasn't going to help. Therefore, instead of wallowing in such negative feelings, she believed it would be better to spend her time trying to improve her skills in order to catch up to Renji so that he couldn't leave her behind even if he might want to.

* * *

Since Rukia had a benefactor and no longer needed to be concerned about her financial situation, she decided to quit all of her part-time jobs so that she could use her free time to review all the lessons and practice all the new moves she learned from her class.

It was then that a thought that had never entered her mind before came to her attention, and the thought was that she might have been too dependent on Renji and their friendship. Because now that she no longer had part-time jobs to do and Renji wasn't around to distract her; she realized just how lonesome she was.

It wasn't as if she didn't know anyone aside from him, but of all classmates that she knew, she wasn't close enough to any of them to actually hang out with them in her free time. Perhaps it was like Renji had once commented and she really did find it hard to adjust to a new environment, or perhaps it was due to the fact that most of her classmates were from noble houses and didn't want to associate themselves with someone who came from the place that was considered one of the worst districts in Rukongai. But no matter what the reason actually was, it still wouldn't change the fact that she still depended a little too much on Renji.

She wasn't sure if Renji noticed it or if he actually minded; but sometimes, she couldn't help wondering if Renji subconsciously tried to create a distance between them, considering how he conveniently forgot to mention to her about how he would be on a training camp for the whole week or that he left out the fact that after his exam he could be advanced to the second year course while she would still be stuck in the first year.

There was a moment when she let her mind wander and imagine what it would have been like if the offer from Kanzan-dono was not just to be her benefactor but to adopt her into his family as his adopted daughter instead.

She wondered what Renji would have said in response to such offer. Would he have told her to accept the proposal so that he would no longer have someone to hold him back, or would he have asked her to stay so that they could be together still?

"What a useless thought!" she said to herself. "Of course, Renji would ask me not to go. After all, if I were to enter a noble house, we might not be able to continue being friends. Hell, I'd slap him senseless if he dares say that I should accept that kind of offer. And why am I even wondering about this? It's not like Kanzan-dono wanted to adopt me to begin with. It's already too kind of him to have offered to be my benefactor. No matter how much I reminded him of his dead wife, no sane noble person would want to tarnish the name of his house by adopting a girl from slum into his family."

And thus she laughed at the thought and brushed it aside and then put her focus on her study and practice. However, with her having quit the part-time jobs and Renji being out of town until Sunday, Rukia was left with not much to do on her weekend.

Although she could have gone to the practice field to train her skills, the good spots were already taken by other students. Therefore, Rukia decided to go out and find somewhere else to train.

As she recalled walking past a nice open area in the second district of South Rukongai on her way to her part-time job at an izakaya; Rukia decided to head there for her training.

Soon enough, Rukia found herself in the second district of South Rukongai, heading toward the direction of said open area.

Upon approaching the area, Rukia furrowed her brows slightly and questioned herself whether she came to the wrong place since she didn't recall ever seeing any cherry trees there. However, the area was covered in a pale pink color of cherry blossoms as the flower petals beautifully swirled in the air as if they were dancing.

"Wow! I didn't realize cherry blossoms in this area are already blooming," she muttered to herself. "I guess I can bring Renji here for flower viewing when he gets back. After all, I still haven't made up to him for that one time I rejected his invitation to view plum blossoms with him."

Rukia smiled at the idea and decided that even if she might have come to the wrong area, it wouldn't hurt to survey the place to see if it would be worthwhile to invite her friend there later. After all, if there were only a few cherry trees in the area, it might not be worth going out there to view the flowers, especially when all cherry trees in Seireitei would be in full bloom in about two weeks from that time.

With that thought, Rukia allowed her feet to bring her closer to where the cherry blossom petals were dancing in the air. However, the closer she got to the area, the harder it was for her to breathe.

It wasn't because the beauty of the scene had taken her breath away, but it was due to the fact that the closer she got to the scene, the more it felt as if she was pressured by some invisible force.

She only managed to take ten more steps ahead before the force became so unbearable that she could no longer move. Even so, she still got close enough to see that behind those swirling flower petals was a man she immediately recognized as the butler of the Kuchiki family, Seike.

He was clad in dark blue kosode and black hakama. The sleeves of his kosode was tied up by a white tasuki sash so that they would not get in the way as he gracefully moved his arms around as if he was dancing to a music that only he could hear.

It was then that Rukia noticed how all the cherry blossom petals were also dancing in accordance with the movement of the man's hands. And at that exact moment, Rukia began to wonder if the flower petals were actually flowers. She also began to doubt he was just an ordinary butler, since she didn't think someone who possessed his level of skills in flash-step, hand-to-hand combat, and possibly kidō would choose to remain just as a butler even if it was a butler of one of the richest and most influential noble clans. However, she didn't really care for the answer, since at that moment, the more pressing matter was for her to keep breathing.

As Rukia was struggling to breathe under such a heavy spiritual pressure the man emitted, a few stray flower petals flew toward her direction. Those petals would have scraped her skin should they continue flying in that direction; however, before any of them reached her, Seike noticed her there.

His gray eyes widened slightly as he spotted her. At that same moment, he quickly motioned his hand toward himself as if to beckon those flowers back to him.

And just like that, all the cherry blossom petals disappeared into thin air, and then the pressure that seemed to have kept Rukia from being able to fully breathe was gone.

* * *

Byakuya stared at Rukia who was busying taking deep breaths after he lifted all of his spiritual pressure. He mentally kicked himself for having been too absorbed in his own training that he failed to notice that someone had gotten close to the training area.

He should have been more careful and at least set up some kind of barrier around the area rather than believing that no one in Rukongai would be able to withstand the force of his spiritual pressure and get into his zanpakutō's radius.

It was fortunate that Senbonzakura was well aware of their surroundings and warned him of her presence as soon as he noticed her there so that Byakuya could command the blades back to him just before any could hit her or otherwise he would have ended up injuring the one person he had sworn to protect.

Although he had told himself that he should keep his distance and that he should only be her silent guardian and anonymous benefactor, he couldn't just leave Rukia there after he almost cut her with his very own blades. Therefore, Byakuya approached her.

"Are you alright?" he asked. "Those petals did not hurt you, did they?"

As he asked, he took a quick look at her from head to toe in order to see with his own eyes whether or not she was injured.

In that one quick glance, he noted how she was clad in a cheap worn purple kimono and for a moment there he wondered if the money he gave to her as an anonymous benefactor was not enough for her to buy some nicer clothes. However, seeing as he didn't plan to ever reveal himself as her benefactor, he couldn't really ask.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied. "Those flowers didn't reach me, though I must ask if they were supposed to hurt me if they did."

He didn't blame her for wondering. After all, no one who saw Senbonzakura for the first time would believe that a zanpakutō which appeared so much like flower petals when it was released would be capable of causing fatal injuries.

"What you saw earlier was not flower petals," he explained, "so yes, they could have injured you."

"Oh," she said, obviously not grasping how dangerous those petals actually were.

"At any rate, it's a relief to know that you're unharmed, but even so I still must apologize for not being more careful when I trained."

"There's no need for you to apologize," she quickly responded. "I mean, no harm was done and it was also my fault for getting too close and interrupting you while you were training."

Byakuya furrowed his brows slightly. He had expected her to simply accept his apology and then continue on her way to wherever she was planning to go, yet she was still standing there, looking as if she wanted to keep conversing with him.

Since he had already made up his mind to keep a certain distance and protect her without being directly involved with her life, the wisest option for him in that situation was to excuse himself and leave. However, a small part of him still wanted to know her as a person rather than as a name on a report. Perhaps it was because she was the last living connection he had of Hisana or perhaps it was due to an entirely different reason; Byakuya couldn't really tell. But no matter what the reason actually was, that part of him still kept him there.

"Even if you should say so, it still doesn't change the fact that I was careless," he pointed.

Rukia tilted her head slightly as she took a look at him.

"Are you always this serious, Seike-san?"

Byakuya blinked once. While he wouldn't say that he was someone who could easily be forgotten, he still didn't expect her to be able to remember him, much less as Seike the butler. After all, they had only met twice and they didn't exchange more than a few lines. Yet somehow she still did, and Byakuya wasn't sure if he should be pleased by that fact.

Taking Byakuya's reaction as a sign that he might have already forgotten who she was, Rukia decided to give him a little detail about herself to jog his memory.

"I guess you don't remember me, but my name is Nanashi Rukia. You rescued me from a Shinigami who tried to assault me a couple of weeks earlier and then I delivered some spice to you at the Kuchiki Mansion."

After she was done reintroducing herself, Rukia looked at Byakuya with something akin to a hopeful look in her eyes. It was as if she wanted to see that he at least had some recollection of her, though why she wanted to be remembered by someone she believed to be a mere butler was beyond him.

Although he could pretend not to remember and let it be the end of their conversation, somehow Byakuya didn't have it in him to disappoint her.

"I do remember you."

"Eh? You do?" she asked, somewhat surprised. "But I thought you don't, since you didn't seem to recognize me at all and you also looked surprised when I addressed you by name."

"Rukia isn't a name one gets to hear so often," he commented.

Rukia laughed lightly.

"People usually say I have a strange name," she noted. "Anyway, if you don't mind me asking, Seike-san. Is Seike your name or your family name?"

Byakuya looked at her as if he tried to read her mind as to why she would want to know, but then he decided that it would be easier just to ask.

"Why would you like to know?"

"Well, it might not be a big deal to you when you rescued me that one time, but if you were someone who grew up in a place where people would just watch someone being beaten to death and then come in later to loot any valuables that the dead might have left, you would know how big of a deal it is when someone actually came to your rescue," she explained, "which is why, if possible, I'd like to know the name of the person who saved me."

After hearing her reason, Byakuya found it hard not to at least tell her his name, even if doing so would go against his plan to remain completely unknown to her while he tried to protect her from a shadow.

"My name is Byakuya."

From the way she furrowed her brows when she heard his name, Byakuya wondered if Rukia finally made the connection between the name he offered and the name of the head of the Kuchiki family as well as the lieutenant of the Sixth Division. Not that he would be disappointed if she couldn't. In fact, he would prefer it more if she never could. Still, it wouldn't make any difference whether she would ever realize who he actually was since he doubted that they would keep running into each other, much less ever develop any personal relationship.

"So it's Seike Byakuya-san," she muttered to herself.

Byakuya didn't say or do anything in order to accept or deny that conclusion. Instead, he simply looked at her.

Sensing the awkward atmosphere, Rukia flashed Byakuya a smile.

"Anyway, I'm probably being a bother to you, so I'll just go find some place else to train and leave this place to you," she said. "In any case, it's a pleasure to see you today, Seike-san. Please feel free to greet me whenever you see me again."

With that, she bowed to him and then left for some other place.

Byakuya followed her with his eyes and didn't look away from that direction even after she disappeared from his line of sight. His action caused his zanpakutō who was watching everything through Byakuya's eyes to make a comment.

'_Be careful, Byakuya,'_ Senbonzakura warned. _'I have a feeling you're starting to feel attached to that girl.'_


	5. Let This Be Our Little Secret

A/N: Greetings, dear readers. Once again, thank you for all reviews you have submitted so far. I feel I've been quite inconsistent with my writing lately, and to make the matter worse, I've spent too much time procrastinating, so I must apologize for the delay in posting this chapter. Anyway, I hope this chapter is worth the wait. In any case, comments and criticisms are welcome. Till next time.

* * *

**Chapter 5: Let This Be Our Little Secret**

Although a kitchen was one of the Shinō Academy's dorm's common facilities, not many students actually used it since it was cheaper—not to mention more convenient—to buy food and snacks from the academy's canteen using student discount than to buy all ingredients from the market and then cook for themselves. Therefore, it wasn't a big surprise that Rukia managed to have the kitchen all to herself, especially when she was there in an early Saturday morning when most students who chose not to return home for the weekend would still be sleeping in their respective beds.

She had woken up at a crack of dawn in order to go to the morning market and buy fresh ingredients before she returned to the dorm's kitchen to start cooking. Although she had already expected that everything in Seireitei's market would be considerably more expensive than in Rukongai's market; Rukia still couldn't help thinking that the price of all ingredients she needed was daylight robbery and that if it had been a month ago, she wouldn't have bought anything there and would have settled for buying some bland food from the canteen. However, since she had received the scholarship from a mysterious nobleman and had some money to spare, she decided that it wouldn't hurt to have home cooked meal every once in a while, especially when she wasn't cooking just to indulge herself, and bought the ingredients anyway.

After she set up some rice to be cooked in a steamer, Rukia gingerly washed the vegetables she bought from the market. If her part-time job as a kitchen hand taught her anything, it would be how to prepare the ingredients and cook simple dishes. The chef at the place she used to work for had even once said that she had the talent for cooking; however, Rukia hardly ever had a chance to cook outside of work.

She had been so absorbed by her activities that she didn't realize how much time had passed. She only knew that Hinamori Momo caught her in the kitchen by the time she was making sweet rolled omelet.

"Good morning, Rukia-chan," the girl greeted as she entered the kitchen. "What are you cooking so early in the morning?"

Rukia turned over her shoulder and gave Hinamori a smile in way of greeting.

"I'm just making tamagoyaki, Hinamori-san," Rukia replied and then turned her attention back to the omelet she was frying in the pan.

Seeing that Rukia was cooking, Hinamori walked over to Rukia and then stopped just when she was standing close enough to see the food that her friend was cooking but not too close that she would get in Rukia's way.

"Wow! This looks amazing," Hinamori complimented. "I didn't realize you can cook, Rukia-chan."

"Well, I've been working as a kitchen hand at a restaurant, so I picked up a little bit of skills," Rukia replied. "I can only cook simple dishes, though."

With that said, Rukia skillfully rolled the egg in the pan.

"Now you're being humble," Hinamori said, knowing that it required a certain level of skill and expertise to be able to precisely flip and roll an omelet in the pan with just a help of a pair of chopsticks. "What's the occasion, by the way? I mean, I don't think you bought these ingredients just because you felt like cooking, and the flower viewing party is tomorrow."

Rukia opened her mouth to reply, but the she stopped herself before she uttered a word.

The truth was Hinamori was right. Rukia wouldn't have bought all the pricey ingredients just because she felt like cooking. There was a reason she woke up early in the morning just to buy fresh ingredients and then cook, and just as Hinamori suspected, it wasn't because of the flower viewing party that she, Renji, Hinamori and Kira would be having in the next day. However, Rukia couldn't really tell Hinamori that the actual reason behind her effort was so that she could give the food to the man who had kindly agreed to help with her Shinigami skills training, Seike Byakuya.

Ever since the time he came to rescue her from some stupid Shinigami, she kept running into him at different places. First, it was at the Kuchiki Mansion where she went to deliver some spices, and then she met him again at an empty field in Rukongai where he was practicing on what she could only assumed to be a complicated kidō spell.

Their fourth meeting took place one week earlier. However, it might not have been as unexpected as all the previous meetings, since she met him again at that same empty field in second district of Rukongai where she met him for the third time.

She could honestly say that she didn't go there in order to meet him. In fact, it was quite the contrary, since she didn't expect him to return to that place again after she spotted him training there. After all, she had a feeling that it used to be his secret training place, so when it was no longer a secret, she believed he would look for a new place to train and never returned to that field again.

However, she couldn't have been more wrong...

_Rukia arrived to that place quite early in the morning and started training with a bokken wooden sword which had been given to all students since their first day in the Shinō Academy. Zanjutsu, otherwise known as swordsmanship, had never been her strength. In fact, it was probably the Shinigami's art that she was worst at._

_A bokken had always felt strange in her hands, and no matter how hard she tried, she just didn't seem to grasp how to be better at wielding a sword. Sometimes she wondered if she would be able to make it through and became a Shinigami, since an ability to wield a zanpakutō was a requirement of being a great Shinigami._

_Just as she was practicing all different moves she learned from class and beginning to feel as if she didn't make any real progress, a smooth male voice cut through the silence and reached her ears._

'_You might want to consider loosening your grip on the sword slightly.'_

_Rukia jumped at the advice and quickly turned to the origin of the voice. She gasped when she saw Byakuya standing right behind her and realized that she had been wrong to believe that he would not return to train on that field again._

'_Seike-san!'_

_He gave her a slight nod of his head as if to acknowledge her greeting. Since he wore no expression on his face, and she didn't know him well enough to be able to read the look in his gray eyes; Rukia wasn't sure what he thought about seeing her there at what might have been his secret training ground._

'_I'm sorry. I didn't mean to steal your favorite training spot, and I swear I'm not stalking you or anything either,' she quickly made an excuse for her appearance there. 'I just thought_—_'_

'_That since you found me here the other time, I wouldn't have returned to this place, so you could take the spot for yourself,' he said, finishing her thought, and Rukia could only give him a sheepish smile in response to how accurate he was._

'_I'll just go and train somewhere else. I'm really sorry, Seike-san.'_

_He raised his hand as a gesture for her to stop._

'_Stay,' he said. 'After all, this is a public place and you did arrive first. I should be the one to look for another place to train.'_

'_But isn't this your secret training spot or something?' she wondered, somehow feeling less tensed after hearing his reasoning._

'_If it's really a secret spot, you wouldn't have been able to find it in the first place,' he noted nonchalantly._

_Although she wasn't sure if it was a joke or not, since he had a very straight face when he delivered his line, Rukia still found herself laughing at his words._

'_I guess you're right.'_

'_Well, then, I shall look for another place to train so you could have your privacy,' he said and then gave her a slight nod of his head in way of bidding farewell before he prepared to turn to leave._

'_Wait, Seike-san!' Rukia called after him, making him turn around to look at her with his eyebrow raised. 'I would feel bad if you have to look for other place because of me, so how about we both train here? I mean, it's a big place, and I don't think either one of us would take up too much space. Unless, of course, you're planning to train that deadly swirly flowery technique of yours again, then that might be bad.'_

_Byakuya thought about her suggestion for a moment before he nodded his head and replied:_

'_In that case, I'll stay.'_

_Rukia gave him a big smile before she turned her attention back to what she had previously been training and didn't pay any attention to what Byakuya was planning to train there._

_A few moments had passed before Rukia groaned in frustration since she didn't feel that she had improved at all. Her movements felt awkward and stiff when they should have been fluid and strong. She then decided to take a break and steal a glance at what the butler of the Kuchiki Mansion was doing as he had been so quiet since he agreed to stay there._

_Rukia almost expected to see nothing but an empty space when she turned to the direction where she had last seen him, yet when she looked to that direction she saw him under a tree in a lotus position, possibly meditating with his sword resting on his laps._

_Seeing how serene and regal he looked and having witnessed him exercising his different skills, Rukia found it hard to believe that someone like him would end up just as a butler without striving for more. However, she still didn't know him well enough to ask what might have been a personal question to him, so all she could do was keeping the curiosity to herself._

'_Staring at me would not help you hone your skills, Nanashi-kun,' Byakuya commented before he opened his eyes._

_Caught, Rukia blushed and quickly turned away from him and then quickly resumed a_ _chūdan_ _stance with her left foot slightly behind her right and her hands held her bokken in front of her body._

'_I was just wondering why you've been so quiet,' she said. 'You can call me Rukia, by the way. Nobody calls me Nanashi.'_

'_I was meditating,' he replied from where he was sitting. 'And just like I said when I arrived here, Rukia-kun, your grip on the bokken is too tight.'_

_Rukia turned to Byakuya and tilted her head. 'How much do you know about zanjutsu, Seike-san?'_

'_I know enough to get by,' was his reply._

'_Could you give me some pointers, then?' she asked, somewhat hopeful. 'As you can see, zanjutsu isn't exactly my strongest skill, but I need to get better if I want to progress faster at the Shinō Academy.'_

'_So you're a student there?' Byakuya asked, and yet somehow he didn't seem surprised._

'_Yes, Seike-san,' she replied. 'My friend and I enrolled to the academy together last fall, but unlike him, my grades are just average at best. Well, except for kidō maybe, since it's my best subject, but I digress, don't I?'_

_Just as Rukia was mentally kicking herself for babbling too much, Byakuya walked over to her. He took a quick glance at her stance before he pointed the sheathed katana in his hand to the ground near her right foot._

'_Place your right foot here,' he said and after he saw that she had followed his instruction, he pointed his sword to another spot and remarked, 'and your left foot should be here.'_

_He then looked at how she held her wooden sword before he narrowed his eyes slightly._

'_Your grip is too stiff. Try relaxing your shoulders more. May I?'_

_When he asked the last question, Byakuya made a gesture with his right hand hovering just above Rukia's but he did not touch her before she gave him a nod. He then quickly corrected the position of her grips as well as changing the angle of the sword she was holding. After he was done, he quickly pulled his hand away as if the contact had burnt him._

'_Remember this position,' he said. 'And you should also remember that the sword you are holding shouldn't feel like a tool to you, but it should feel as if it is an extension of yourself, for if what you're holding is zanpakutō, then it is really an extension of you...'_

_Rukia continued to train under Byakuya's guidance until the sun was right above their heads, and her stomach was growling. It was then that she realized that she had been bothering him for hours when he was there for his own training, not to be her trainer._

_Despite what she was afraid, he didn't seem to mind. In fact, he appeared to genuinely want to help her with her training and he even offered to meet her again in the following weekend in order to see how much she progressed after one week of having practiced what he had taught._

'_Wouldn't that be troublesome for you, Seike-san?' Rukia couldn't help asking._

'_I wouldn't have made that offer if I thought it would be troublesome for me,' he replied._

'_I don't have anything to give to you in return, though.'_

_Byakuya nodded as if to say that he had already guessed as much, which made Rukia wonder if she actually looked like some poor damsel in distress that he felt he had to offer his helping hand to. However, Rukia wasn't going to question his intention for offering to help her, since it would be as if she was looking at a gift horse in the mouth. Besides, she believed herself to be a rather good judge of character, and her gut told her she could trust him._

'_Actually, there is one thing you can do for me,' he remarked after a long pause._

'_What is it, Seike-san?' she asked, obviously delighted by the fact that she could do something for him in return for his help. After all, it never felt right for her to simply accept someone's kindness without doing something for that person in return._

'_I'd appreciate it if you do not speak of our training to anyone.'_

_Rukia furrowed her brows slightly as she tried to hazard a guess as to why he did not want her to speak of the training with anyone, but then she figured he might not want anyone to find out that the Kuchikis' butler also possessed Shinigami skills, or that he didn't mind either way but simply asked her to do some random thing so that she could feel that she had done something for him in return._

'_Sure, Seike-san,' she promised. 'This will be our secret.'_

_And thus it was agreed that she would meet and train with him at the field in Rukongai every Saturday morning and that in return, she would not tell anyone about their meetings..._

Even though it should have already satisfied her to keep the promise she gave to him, she still felt it wasn't enough. Therefore, she spent the whole week thinking about what she could do in order to repay the man's kindness, and yet the only idea she could come up with was cooking him some lunch, which might or might not suit his taste.

One could say it was not much, but she supposed not much was still better than nothing at all.

The thought of the home made meal brought Rukia's mind back to the conversation she had been having with Hinamori, so Rukia shook her head before she replied rather lamely:

"Oh, this is just my own lunch. I mean, I have to taste my own cooking first to see if it's edible before I give it to everyone, right?"

Hinamori furrowed her brows slightly as if she doubted Rukia's words, and Rukia didn't blame her. After all, the amount of food she prepared was more than for one person. However, Hinamori opted not to press for an actual answer, and Rukia appreciated it, since she didn't want to tell a lie.

"Well, I guess you're right," she remarked. "Anyway, Rukia-chan, I didn't know if Abarai-kun has told you this, but Abarai-kun, Kira-kun and I are going to train our zanjutsu together later this morning. Would you like to join us?"

Renji had also mentioned it to her when they were talking the day before, and Rukia would have agreed without any hesitation had she not already made an appointment to train with Byakuya. However, she had already made plan with Byakuya, and she didn't think it would be proper to look for him at the Kuchiki Mansion just to tell him that she couldn't keep the appointment because she would rather be training with her friends. Therefore, as much as she hated to refuse the opportunity to spend more time with the few friends that she had, she still had to.

"Renji has already told me about it, but I'm afraid I cannot come since I already have other engagement," Rukia replied, "but thanks for asking, anyway."

"Ah, how could I have forgotten? You've got to do your part-time job, right?" Hinamori asked, believing that Rukia was still having part-time jobs on the weekends. "That's too bad, but I guess we can train together some other time?"

Rukia nodded and gave the other girl a smile.

"Yes, maybe some other time."

"Well, I guess I should leave you to your cooking and go to the canteen to have breakfast," Hinamori said. "I'll see you later, Rukia-chan."

Rukia gave Hinamori a nod before she replied, "See you later, Hinamori-san."

She felt bad for not telling her friends the whole truth, but she didn't dwell on that feeling for too long. After all, a promise was a promise, and it wasn't as if she was doing something bad behind their backs.

* * *

Meanwhile in Rukongai, Byakuya had already arrived to the field where he would later meet with Rukia. He arrived a couple of hours prior to the meeting time, as he wanted to do some training of his own before Rukia would arrive.

Since he didn't want to risk having Rukia caught him by surprise when he was training with his zanpakutō just like that one time, Byakuya decided against releasing his zanpakutō. Instead, he opted to go to the inner world to visit Senbonzakura, hoping that the zanpakutō would be in a less disagreeable mood and thus be more inclined to teach him a better control of Senbonzakura Kageyoshi.

Byakuya knew Senbonzakura hadn't been so pleased with him lately, since he tended to go against every advice and warning that the zanpakutō had given to him, especially when they were matters that involved Hisana's sister, Rukia.

However, despite their different views on several matters, they somehow shared the same opinion when it came to the decision to help that girl with her training...

_Byakuya could have sworn that he did not have any plan to be more involved with that girl than he had already been as her anonymous benefactor. He even contemplated looking for a new place to train when he arrived to his usual training spot and found it occupied by her, yet something made him stay there and watch her._

_He had told himself he would only watch her for a moment and then he would go and search for some other place to train, yet after he had watched how she struggled to handle her practiced sword correctly, he couldn't stop himself from approaching her and then commenting on what she had done wrong in her practice._

_Once he realized his folly, Byakuya planned to leave right afterward, yet he couldn't say no to her when she politely asked him to stay and train there. It was one of those moments when he knew it would be better for him to go, yet he still couldn't quite walk away. So in the end, Byakuya decided that it wouldn't hurt to stay there just a while. He would then excuse himself after some moment had passed so that she would not have to feel as if he was leaving because of her presence._

_He didn't expect, however, that she would later ask for some pointers on how to handle a sword; and it was even more unexpected when he found himself agreeing to it. Very little did he think that it would lead to them setting up an appointment to meet there again so that he could see how much she progressed._

_Unlike all other decisions he had made regarding Rukia, Senbonzakura didn't seem to disapprove this one. In fact, he seemed to be pleased that Byakuya had chosen to help the girl with her training._

'_Well, it's the least you could do,' Senbonzakura reasoned. 'I mean, she's going to be a Shinigami someday, and judging from how she didn't get suffocated by your reiatsu the other time, she will surely become a high-level Shinigami in the future. Since you're not adopting her into the family, we can't use the family's influence to prevent her from being assigned to any dangerous missions that would come with the position, so at the very least you can personally make sure that she will have the skills she needs to protect herself when we are not around to do so.'_

_He didn't, however, approve how Byakuya still did not correct Rukia's misunderstanding, but instead he chose to let her believe that he was just a butler of the Kuchiki Family._

'_She's bound to find out who you really are, Byakuya, and it'd be sooner rather than later,' Senbonzakura observed. 'After all, you aren't nobody. So wouldn't it be better for her to find out from you now rather than from some other source?'_

'_Perhaps,' Byakuya replied noncommittally, 'but I thought you want me to continue helping her with her training.'_

'_Yes, so?' Senbonzakura replied, not quite understanding what Byakuya was getting at._

'_So we've met her four times now, Senbonzakura,' Byakuya said, 'Do you reckon that she is the type that would dare to associate herself with someone who is of higher social status? She knows her place, Senbonzakura, and even if it's not the place she deserves to be, it's still her place. Once she knew who I am, at best, she'd be wary and try to keep her distance while at worst, she would think that I see her as some kind of novelty act and enjoy watching her making a fool out of herself.'_

_Senbonzakura sighed softly, knowing that Byakuya had a point. However, he then snorted and noted in a mocking tone:_

'_Then I'm surprised you didn't tell her who you were since the moment you met her that second time, Byakuya, seeing how much you've been trying to keep your distance from that girl...'_

Shaking the thought out of his head, Byakuya finally entered his inner world.

* * *

When Rukia arrived to the training place, she found Byakuya sitting on a rock under a tree with his eyes closed and a sword on his laps. If she hadn't known better, she would have thought she had arrived so late that he fell asleep while he waited for her. However, she knew she was not late for their appointment, and she also knew that he was meditating and that if what she had recently read in some book in academy's library about an advanced sword meditation technique known as jinzen could apply, it would mean that he could communicate with his zanpakutō, which could imply that he knew more about zanjutsu than just "enough to get by."

Putting down a shoulder sack which she used to carry a couple of lunch boxes she had prepared for the two of them down under the tree close to where Byakuya was meditating, Rukia noticed how deep he seemed to be in his trance. She grinned lopsidedly as she thought that if he was Renji and she had a brush and some ink on her person, she wouldn't have missed the chance to draw something funny on his face. However, since the man before her was not Renji but was someone who seemed to be able to demand respect with just his mere presence, not to mention the fact that he was also someone Rukia was still indebted to; all Rukia did was entertaining the notion and chuckling at the thought before she stepped back and decided to train on her own while she waited for him to come out of trance.

Rukia didn't know when Byakuya had come out of his trance, but when she stopped practicing to turn to his general direction, he was standing with his arms folded above his chest, watching her with a certain pensive look in his piercing gray eyes. She wasn't sure how long he had been observing her practice, but she hoped she hadn't made any wrong moves while he was watching her. After all, he seemed like a strict instructor and would probably expect no less than perfection from someone he had chosen to spare his time to train.

In any case, Rukia bowed to him and uttered her greeting, "Good morning, Seike-san."

"Good morning," he responded, still not moving from his position. "I see you remember everything I taught you last time."

Taking his comment as a compliment, she smiled. The smile didn't last long, however, as she later furrowed her brows in frustration and added, "My moves still feel awkward, though."

"You have high expectation of yourself, which is usually a good start," Byakuya commented. "However, zanjutsu is not an art which you can master in mere days."

"I know," Rukia replied, "but you still spare your precious free time to train me, so I don't want to be a disappointment to you."

Byakuya winced slightly as if her words had struck a chord, but then his expression returned to normal within a second.

Rukia wasn't sure what that reaction meant, but she had a feeling that she might have said something wrong, although she really couldn't tell what that something was. After all, she only said what she felt.

"It is good to set your expectation high, but do not set it too high that it would give you too much pressure to handle," he noted. "As for being a disappointment to me or not, I shall be the judge to that myself and so far you have not disappointed me."

A soft smile appeared on Rukia's face once she heard his last sentence. Although a part of her knew he was just being polite, she was still touched by his words. Perhaps it was because she had grown up with a bunch of boys who hardly ever said nice things to her as they viewed saying anything sentimental as a sign of weakness or perhaps it was because she sensed that the man in front of her was a type that would not utter something unless he meant those words.

"Hana-san was right," she commented. "You are a kind man, Seike-san."

He chuckled at the comment.

"Not many people would use that word to describe me," he observed. "However, let's not waste any more time to discuss this. Shall we proceed with your training?"

Rukia quickly nodded in response and thus the training began.

* * *

When the sun rose to the middle of the sky, Byakuya decided that it would be a good time to end the training for that day. Although swordsmanship might not be Rukia's best skill, Byakuya still thought she did quite well for a novice and had high hopes for her.

He waited until she was done practicing another set of strikes before he suggested:

"It is already midday, so perhaps we should now call it a day?"

"Oh, alright," Rukia replied before she lowered her wooden sword.

"Well, then, Rukia-kun, I'll see you here again next week."

He was preparing to leave just as that; however, before he could do so, Rukia called after him.

"Wait, Seike-san!" she said. "Do you have any appointment after this? I mean, if you're not in a hurry, I've made some lunch. So I'm wondering if you'd like to have lunch together with me before you go?"

Byakuya blinked once since that offer came rather unexpectedly. He wasn't sure what his face might have looked like to her, since Rukia quickly added:

"But it's totally fine if you already have another plan."

Byakuya thought about it for a moment. The truth was he didn't have any plan, except that he had told the real Seike that he would be returning to the mansion for lunch. Although Byakuya didn't think Seike would mind at all if he didn't return when he had said he would, he could still use that as an excuse and tell Rukia that he already had another appointment. After all, he shouldn't spend more time with her than it was really necessary, and Rukia said it herself that it would be fine for him to refuse if he already had another plan.

Still, he could tell that she would be disappointed should he refuse, and he didn't want to be the one who caused her to feel down.

"I don't have any other plan," he finally replied.

"That's great!" she exclaimed. "We can sit down at that rock there."

Byakuya felt he had given her the right answer, since her face seemed to be lit up by his words. In fact, he believed that if he was one of her friends, she would have already dragged him by his arm or pushed him in the back in order to get him moving to where she wanted him to sit and have lunch.

However, since she seemed to have given him a little more respect than she did her friends, she only jogged to the rock where she had left her shoulder sack, hoping that he would just follow her there himself.

And follow her, he did.

When Byakuya reached to the rock, Rukia had already brought two lunch boxes out of her shoulder sack. She turned to offer one of those boxes to him. Byakuya accepted it and then proceeded to sit down on the rock.

Rukia then sat down to next to him, close but not close enough that it would be deemed inappropriate. Then she handed him a pair of disposable chopsticks wrapped in a plain paper wrapper.

"Thank you," Byakuya remarked. "You shouldn't have bothered."

"Please consider it my way to repay you for helping me with my training," she responded. "Though in saying that, it's just a simple lunch box, so I hope it's alright with you."

Byakuya opened the lid of the lunch box to look at what was packed inside and he had to fight to suppress a smile that threaten to form on his lips the moment he laid his eyes on the rice that was molded into a shape of a cartoon rabbit face and decorated with a nori seaweed so that it looked like it was smiling and winking at him.

"Do you like rabbits, Rukia-kun?"

Rukia blinked twice at the question since it seemed to come out of nowhere, but then she widened her eyes and all but forcefully take Byakuya's lunch box out of his hands and away from his view.

"Please give it back to me and forget what you just saw, Seike-san!" she said, blushing profusely. "This is so embarrassing. How could I have given you the wrong box?"

"It looks nice," Byakuya commented as he returned the box to her, seeing how uncomfortable she seemed to be with the fact that he had seen her little artwork.

Although he meant it when he said that, he doubted it make Rukia feel any better, since she still refused to meet his eyes when she switched the lunch box he returned to her with the one she laid on her laps and then handed him what was supposed to be the correct lunch box.

"Right, and you're being considerate while I keep making a fool out of myself," she muttered.

Knowing that there was no point in arguing with her about it, he decided not to say anything and opened the new lunch box to reveal a more professional-looking set of meal which consisted of rice, two pieces of fried dumplings, sweet rolled omelet, a few pieces of shrimp tempura and some vegetables.

Byakuya then turned his eyes to Rukia, who poked at her rabbit shaped rice with her chopsticks as if it was her enemy. He watched how she silently eat for a few seconds before he turned his attention back to his own lunch box and started eating.

As he ate his meal, Byakuya couldn't help thinking that while Rukia looked very much like her sister, she was very much different from Hisana. Hisana was a mild-mannered, soft-spoken woman who always carried herself in a lady-like manner whereas Rukia was somewhat tomboyish and full of spunk although she still remained polite and humble.

It was not so often that anyone would act like Rukia did around him, but then, it was probably because she thought he was a mere butler and thus had no reason to feel that she needed to be especially mindful of her manners when she was in his presence. She would probably treat him differently if she found out that he was a head of a noble clan.

'_Y__ou'__ll__ never know that for sure __unless you tell her__, Byakuya_.'

Ignoring Senbonzakura's word, Byakuya turned his gaze back to Rukia who was still attacking at her food with a vengeance. He wondered if there would be a sign to tell him when far became close and close became too close.


	6. Things We Didn't Say

A/N: Thank you for all thoughts and supports that were sent so far, and once again I apologize for having taken such a long time to update. Sometimes real life just doesn't leave much room for creativity, and I think you all deserve better than a sub-par update (though I suppose my standard isn't really that high to begin with.) Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy reading this chapter as much as you did the previous one. Comments and criticisms are welcome as always. Till next time.

* * *

**Chapter 6: Things We Didn't Say**

Shinō Academy's students were gathering around a bulletin board at the main study hall, looking at the spring exam results and the next term class placement announcement that were just posted there.

Although Renji wasn't excited about them at all since he was one of the gifted students who had passed special tests and been advanced to the second year course since early spring, he could tell that Rukia was dying to see her results and which class she would be placed in and that the only reason she had yet to be in front of that board to look at the announcements was because she knew there was no way a petite person like her would be able to get through the crowd. In fact, he could see how nervous she became with every second that had passed as she was waiting for the other students to move away so that she could get to the front of the bulletin board.

"You know I can get over there and look over those students' shoulders for your results for you if you'd like," Renji offered, seeing how Rukia was fidgeting as she waited.

"Thanks, but I've got to see them with my own eyes."

"I'm sure you'll be placed in a good class," he commented, and he didn't say so just to ease her nerve, but he actually believed she would do well. After all, he saw how hard she had been studying, and he also noticed how drastically her skills had improved over the past months.

"Of course, I will," she replied. "I've been studying and practicing hard for the spring exams."

"Yeah, yeah, you want to make that 'Kanzan-dono' proud. You've said that a million times already," Renji said, rolling his eyes.

He wasn't sure why, but the more Rukia mentioned that mysterious man she dubbed Kanzan-dono, the more wary he got about that man. Some might say it was because he was jealous of the fact that Rukia had been studying hard in order to impress a man she hadn't even met, but Renji didn't think it was the case. He just felt that something was off about that man. For instance, he never showed any intention to reveal his true identity. He couldn't see why anyone would do that unless they were some shady people who had things to hide.

"Not just Kanzan-dono. There's also—" Rukia paused for a fracture of a second, but it was still enough to tell Renji that what she uttered later was not what she had initially meant to say. "—the fact that I'm sick of losing to you when it comes to studying here."

Renji had a feeling that she had been keeping things secret from him such as how she managed to vastly improve her swordsmanship skill in just a couple of months when she used to be so bad at it before. And it wasn't just about her swordsmanship, her other skills and techniques were also noticeably better.

Rukia kept saying that it was all due to the fact that she had more free time to study and practice, but he sensed that there was more than she let on. He wanted to press her for the whole truth, but knowing her, he wouldn't be able to get anything out of her using that method. However, since she didn't seem to be in any kind of trouble, the best he could do was waiting until she decided to confide in him.

Thus Renji decided to just laugh at her words.

"Ha, you might have improved, but you won't catch up with me any time soon, midget!"

Rukia turned to give him a glare before she remarked, "Don't be too sure about that, you big oaf."

"Oh, yeah? Then why wait here? Let's just go and see the results, come on," Renji challenged before he all but dragged Rukia to the bulletin board. He then used his big body to bump his way through the crowd to the front while pulling Rukia close behind him and dismissing all the curses and complaints people uttered as he bumped into them.

Once they were right in front of the board, Renji watched as Rukia searched for her name in the class placement announcement. Then he decided he might as well look for her name just so the people who were standing behind him wouldn't be able to complain that he was just standing there without doing anything aside from blocking their views.

Renji was in the middle of reading the names of the people who were assigned to the last class, when he felt his left arm being forcefully tugged not once or twice but three times.

"What!?" he turned to ask, knowing that the only person who would treat him that way was none other than Rukia.

Rukia didn't utter any response. Instead, she simply pointed her rather shaky finger to one of the paper on the bulletin board. Her violet eyes were slightly widened in an expression that Renji recognized as surprise.

He wasn't sure why she had that expression, so he looked to where her slender finger was pointing. He furrowed his brows slightly since what he saw there was merely her name, but then he looked at the top of the paper, which indicated the number of the class Rukia was placed in.

"Class 2? Really?!" Renji said, genuinely surprised. "That's second only to the advanced class, right? Well done, Rukia!"

He then ruffled her hair as his way of congratulating her.

Hearing Renji's remark, Rukia blinked twice as if to bring herself out of a temporary stupor. She then elbowed him in the rib before she made her way away from the bulletin board.

"That hurts, midget!" Renji complained as he followed her right behind.

"You're ruining my hairdo, stupid pineapple!" she remarked as she rubbed her hair to make sure it was not mussed at all. Even though she acted as if she was angry, Rukia was grinning from ear to ear, obviously proud of her achievement. "But anyway, this means I'm only one step away from being placed in an advanced class. God, I can't wait to tell Se—Kanzan-dono about this."

Renji narrowed his crimson eyes. It was obvious to him that Kanzan-dono's name wasn't the first that came to Rukia's mind when she thought about telling someone about her achievement. And he wasn't sure what annoyed him more between the fact that she obviously kept secrets from him and the strange hunch that if he hadn't been there with her when the announcement was posted, he might not be the first person she thought to share that good news with.

In any case, Renji quickly brushed that thought aside, knowing that if she were able to tell what he was thinking, she would most likely kick him in the rear.

"So you're gonna write another letter and ask the principal to pass it to him?" Renji wondered. "Is that really a good idea? I mean, didn't both letters you send to him previously go unanswered?"

Renji bit his tongue before he mentally smacked himself in the back of his head for having asked her that question. He knew that even though she acted as if she didn't mind the fact that her benefactor didn't reply to the letters she wrote to him, she was in fact more than a little disappointed. Still he just couldn't keep his big mouth shut and had to go and remind her of it.

"Not that I'm saying that you should stop writing to him or anything," he quickly added although he wasn't sure if what he said would actually help.

Rukia shrugged her shoulders as if she didn't really mind, yet her smile seemed to falter slightly.

"That's fine, Renji. I know you're worried that I'd be disappointed if my letter went unanswered again, but it's not like I really expect him to reply to my letter to begin with. I just want to let him know how far I've progressed because I owe him at least that much, so it doesn't really matter if he ever writes me a reply or not."

"Well, if that's how you really feel..."

"Of course, it is."

Although he didn't really believe her, he still knew how stubborn Rukia could be when it came to insisting that she was unaffected by things that actually affected her, so he decided to let it go.

"So, are you planning to go back to your dorm room to start writing a letter to that Kanzan-dono of yours right after today's class is over?" Renji asked.

"That's the plan, why?"

"Well, I'm just thinking that maybe we could dine out later tonight in order to celebrate your new class placement," he replied. "So what do you say?"

"Will it be your treat?"

Renji rolled his eyes before he replied, "Only if you don't order anything expensive."

"Che. What a cheapskate!" she commented. "Well, whatever, today is already Friday, so even if I finish writing the letter tonight, I won't be able to ask the principal to forward it to Kanzan-dono until Monday anyway and free food is free food, so sure, Renji, I'll go."

"Now who's the real cheapskate here?"

Rukia laughed at that but didn't say anything in reply to Renji's words.

"Anyway, I have class right after this, so I should get going now," she noted. "I'll see you after class, Renji."

"Yeah, Rukia, I'll see you then."

With that, Rukia gave him a wave goodbye before she turned and walked away.

Watching her leave, Renji couldn't help thinking that despite the fact that he had known her for over a decade, he still couldn't read her most of the time.

* * *

Just like every Saturday since she first started training with Byakuya, Rukia woke up early in the morning in order to prepare lunch boxes for the two of them. The only difference between that day and all previous Saturdays that was that Rukia couldn't hide her excitement about the meeting that would be held later that day. In fact, while she was cooking, she was hoping that time would move faster so that she could tell Byakuya about her exam results and her new class placement and see how he would react to that news.

It had been almost three months since she first started training her Shinigami skills under his guidance, and while Byakuya was a type that one might describe as a strict disciplinarian, Rukia still felt that underneath his impassive look lay profound kindness and good intentions. Therefore, she couldn't help wondering what his expression would be like when she told him how well her exam results turned out.

She wondered if he would smile and compliment her for the job well done. She certainly hoped that he would do so, not just because she wanted him to be proud of her but also because she didn't think she had seen him smile and she wanted to see what his face would look like if he really did smile.

For a moment there, she imagined Byakuya smiling as he ruffled her hair and then congratulated her in the same way that Renji had done the day before. However, she quickly erased the mental image as she blushed scarlet.

"No, no, no. Seike-san would never do that," she told herself. "He's way too … proper."

And proper was the only word she could think of at that moment that would describe Byakuya's manners.

He never uttered any profanity and never raised his voice even when he scolded her for the mistakes she made during the training. He always maintained a certain distance with her and hardly ever came within her personal space and should it ever be necessary for him to touch her, he would ask for her permission first. She supposed that was what she should expect from someone who worked in a great noble house.

"If that's how a butler behaves, I want to see how prim and proper an actual noble would be," she softly mused.

Rukia then chuckled lightly as she thought about how Byakuya would have easily passed as a nobleman. She would have certainly thought so if she hadn't been told that he was the butler of that house. After all, no normal working class men should be allowed to possessed such a fair, smooth skin nor should they be allowed to have such soft hands and silky hair that could make any a woman envious.

Rukia then shook that thought aside, knowing that she had spent too much time musing about Byakuya when her focus should be on the food she was cooking and the lesson she was going to have with him that day rather than about the man himself.

It hadn't taken Rukia too long to finish cooking and packing the lunch boxes. In fact, she finished the task much earlier than she normally would, possibly due to the fact that she woke up earlier than normal since she was too excited about telling her exam results to Byakuya.

After Rukia had finished cleaning up the kitchen and then wrapped the lunch boxes with furoshiki cloth to be carried to the training field, she carried the wrapped lunch boxes with her back to her room in order to get her bokken and then headed out of the rendezvous place.

She couldn't hide her excitement or her smile when she finally got on her way to the training field, knowing that Byakuya would already be there, sitting on his favorite spot on the rock under that certain tree, doing the jinzen sword meditation as he waited for her to arrive.

* * *

While Rukia was making her way to the gate to Rukongai, Byakuya was still in the middle of the Kuchiki Manor's zen garden. Normally, he would have left the mansion by that time as he wanted to arrive to the training field before Rukia did in order to practice his own skills; however, his plan had been interrupted when he walked across the garden on his way out of the mansion and was stopped by one of his elders, Kuchiki Kaede.

"Good morning, Byakuya-sama," the old man greeted. "Do you, perhaps, have some minutes to spare? I would like to discuss some matters with you."

Although it might be purely incidental for the old man to have caught him there, something deep down told Byakuya that it was the old man's plan to wait for him there at that time, knowing that Byakuya wouldn't be able to brush him off and say that he had other pressing matters to deal with since Byakuya was off duty on Saturday.

Byakuya supposed he should be thankful that Kaede only chose to confront him then. After all, Byakuya had been avoiding a conversation with him since the elderly man first brought up the subject of arranged marriage four months ago. He would postpone the discussion for much longer if he could, but judging from the determination in the old man's eyes, Byakuya doubted it would be possible.

"As long as it doesn't take too long," Byakuya replied. "I'm just about to head out to train for the taishu test."

"I'm already informed of your Saturday schedule, Byakuya-sama, and I commend your dedication," Kaede noted. "Still, I hope you wouldn't mind me asking when the test would take place."

"The date has yet to be set," Byakuya stated matter-of-factly. "Therefore, all I can tell you now is that Unohana-taichō has kindly agreed to recommend me as a candidate for the test in the next captains meeting and also to help with my preparation for the test. I will let you know about the test date once it was officially set."

Kaede blinked once. The old man was obviously surprised though Byakuya couldn't tell if it was due to the fact that Byakuya had already prepared for everything or the fact that of all captains Byakuya could have asked to be his mentor, he opted to ask the Captain of the Fourth Division, Unohana Retsu.

"I see. That's good," Kaede commented. "In this case, I suppose you might have been too busy with the taishu test preparation to actually look at the list of marriage prospects I have sent to you months ago, am I right, Byakuya-sama?"

Byakuya narrowed his eyes as he tried to read Kaede's intention. Since Kaede was the one who brought up that subject and even presented to him with that list of names, he highly doubted the old man would be pleased if Byakuya were really to reply that he was correct, but then he couldn't be too sure. Kaede could be hard to read at times, and Byakuya was still unsure about the man's stand in the regard of Byakuya's remarriage issue. However, from the way the man uttered his line, it sounded almost as if Kaede was offering Byakuya a chance to make an excuse.

"If I said that was the case, how would you respond to it, Kaede?"

"Personally, I would not be surprised if you were to use any excuses you have to put this matter off for as long as you possibly could, Byakuya-sama," Kaede replied, "but as I have been assigned to see to your remarriage arrangement, I would still have to report everything I know to the council."

Byakuya narrowed his eyes slightly.

"And what exactly do you know, Kaede?"

"You mean aside from the fact that you are focusing on the preparation for the taishu test, Byakuya-sama?"

Byakuya didn't say anything in reply, but the look in his eyes alone was enough to prompt the older nobleman to continue, which he did.

"I suspect there is more to your Saturday practice session than you let on."

Byakuya raised an eyebrow as he kept his gaze on Kaede's eyes, hoping that he wouldn't show any emotion while he was trying to call the old man's bluff.

"Is there?"

Seeing how Byakuya didn't bite his bait, Kaede smiled.

"The truth is there doesn't have to be anything at all, Byakuya-sama," he remarked. "All I need to do is saying what I have just said to you to the other elders and let their imagination run wild. Then they would be the ones who come to pressure you to marry one of the ladies they chose for you as soon as possible, and I would no longer have to be responsible for this bothersome task."

Despite what the old man had said, Byakuya still had to wonder if Kaede had already found out about Rukia and how Byakuya was dealing with her in general. However, since the old man had yet to reveal his card, Byakuya decided to act like he didn't suspect anything.

"I'm sure this is more bothersome to me than to you."

"Somehow I highly doubt that, Byakuya-sama," said the old man. "It is not easy to be a middleman between you and the other elders, especially regarding this matter."

"You seem to be doing that just fine, Kaede," Byakuya observed, "though I must say I'm not entirely certain which side you're on in this regard."

"I'm always on the side which would bring the most benefit to our family, Byakuya-sama."

Byakuya stared at the older man for a moment before he nodded.

"If that's where you really stand, Kaede, then I would suggest you go and tell the rest of the elders that not only have I looked at the names of those ladies they suggested, but I've also run background checks on all of them, so I can see the elders' true intention for suggesting those ladies to me, and I do not appreciate being taken for a fool."

To that remark, Kaede blinked.

"I'm afraid I do not have any idea what you are implying, Byakuya-sama."

"I'm talking about how those women are, in one way or another, related to some of our branch families. For example, one is Hiroshi's wife's great-niece, another one is Naoki's goddaughter, and the list continues," Byakuya stated. "Now I'd understand if those ladies' names were suggested because a political marriage with any one of them would extend our clan's influence in Soul Society, but after seeing that list, I couldn't help thinking that the elders just wanted to increase their own influence in the main house."

Kaede sighed softly.

"If that is what you think, I suppose I'd just tell them that you're not interested in any of those ladies," said the old man, "but you do realize, of course, Byakuya-sama, that they would come up with a new list, and you would not be able to keep brushing this matter off for good."

"I know what my duties as the head of our family are, Kaede. You don't need to remind me of them," Byakuya replied. "However, I think the elders might need someone to remind them that their duties as a member of the clan council is to give useful advice to the head of the family when he asks for them and not to try to use him for their own benefit, so I'd appreciate it if they'd show me a little bit of respect and stop treating me as if I'm some brainless puppet."

Kaede took a deep breath before he remarked:

"Respect is not something you can demand, Byakuya-sama. It is something you have to earn, and forgive me for saying this, but in the eyes of the elders, you are merely a wayward child that they feel they need to bend to their will, so unless you can prove to them time and time again that you are a capable clan leader, you would not be able to earn their true respects."

Byakuya narrowed his eyes in an attempt to collect his emotions. Even so, his gray eyes were still darken in what could only be described as cold fury. It took a moment before the look in Byakuya's gray eyes turned relatively normal.

"So that is how the council sees me? A wayward child?" Byakuya asked in a tone that was much calmer than what Kaede expected to hear. "Well, then, I'm glad to be enlightened about that."

Kaede didn't say anything in response as he believed Byakuya would add some sharp comment right after that line. So when Byakuya didn't say anything afterward, the old man furrowed his brows.

Seeing the perplexed look on the older man's face, Byakuya commented, "You look like you still have something to say, so is there anything else you wish to discuss to me?"

"No, Byakuya-sama," the old man replied, and he wasn't sure if he was imagining things or Byakuya actually let out a dry chuckle after he heard his words. "I would not be taking any more of your time."

"In that case, excuse me then."

Without bothering to wait for a response from the older man, Byakuya continued on his way out of the mansion.

* * *

Although he knew he was already late for the appointment with Rukia, Byakuya still chose to walk there instead of using flash steps to get there quicker. After all, he didn't want to carry all those dark emotions with him to meet Rukia, and he needed some time to clear his head.

It wasn't as if he hadn't already known that the elders in the clan council didn't think too highly of him. After all, like Kaede had told him earlier, he was always regarded as Kuchiki Ginrei's spoiled grandson. It just didn't bother the elders before because they didn't expect that Byakuya would become the head of the family, or at least, not that soon, since they never thought that Ginrei would ever get killed in action.

In any case, Byakuya had told himself since he succeeded the position from his late grandfather that he would not let himself be provoked by the elders' negative attitudes toward him. However, despite how hard he had tried, it still got to him and more often than not he would lash back at them, which usually worsened the situation.

There were times when he wondered why the elders allowed him to become the head of the family if nothing he had done was ever good enough in their eyes, and why they even bothered to add the honorific "sama" to his name if they didn't feel even slightest bit of respect toward him.

Byakuya rubbed the bridge of his nose and tried to shake all unwanted thoughts out of his head as he got closer to his destination. After all, he didn't ever want to bother Rukia with his problems.

Since he couldn't see why she would just sit around and do nothing when he wasn't there, he had expected that Rukia would be practicing on her own when he arrived to the field. Therefore, he was surprised to find Rukia just standing under the tree with a worried look on her face.

Looking at the position of the sun, he realized he was quite late for their appointment which was probably why she seemed worried. After all, he had never been late to their appointment before, so she might have thought that something bad had happened to him on his way there.

The moment Rukia spotted him, her worried expression morphed into a smile. She then walked to meet him halfway.

The sullen mood that Byakuya had been having since before he left his house faded away at the sight of Rukia's radiant smile. It was as if some load had been lifted from his shoulders, and for a moment there, it was easier for him to breathe.

"Seike-san!" It was obvious that she meant to say something to him after she had greeted him, but then she changed her mind about it since her smiling face was replaced with a look of concern the moment she got a good look at his face. Instead, she asked, "Is something the matter? I mean, you seem somewhat troubled."

"Is it that obvious?" Byakuya wondered. After all, he thought he had already masked all of his emotions, and he doubted she had known him well enough to be able to read his moods.

"Well, if you really must know, your face doesn't normally express anything much; however, your eyes can be quite expressive at times."

Byakuya blinked at the explanation.

"Are they?" he asked and the response he received from Rukia was a shrug of her shoulders.

"Yes, Seike-san. They are," she confirmed. "So what happened?"

"It was just a disagreement between one of the elders of my family and I. It's a usual occurrence in my family, so it's nothing worth being concerned over."

"I see," Rukia remarked. If she wanted to ask him why he seemed troubled if it wasn't something worth being concerned over, she didn't ask. "I guess if you look on the bright side, it's better to have a family to argue with than to never have one at all."

Since he knew, perhaps all too well, about how she had to survive on her own in one of the poorest districts of Rukongai since she was still an infant, he could see why she would believe that it would be better to be born into a family. He wondered if she would still have that same thought if she ever found out that she hadn't died alone and been sent to that part of Rukongai all by herself like she had always thought but had been sent there together with a sister who then abandoned her there in that hellhole.

He would never get the answer for that question, however, since he didn't plan to ever tell Rukia about Hisana. Not only because Hisana had requested him never to tell her, but also because after he had come to know Rukia in a personal level, he could tell that she would be crushed by the harsh truth that the family she always wished she had turned out to be nowhere near as good as she had imagined it to be.

"Trust me, Rukia-kun, sometimes family isn't really as good as it is cracked up to be."

Rukia shook her head and chuckled lightly before she remarked, "Now you only said so because you just had a fight with your elder and are still in a bad mood, Seike-san."

"Perhaps, perhaps not," Byakuya stated noncommittally, "But in any case, let's not discuss this any further. How was your week, Rukia-kun?"

"Ah!" Rukia exclaimed as if she just remembered something. Her face was then lit up with excitement. "Now that you speak of this, Seike-san, the spring exam results and the new class placement were just announced yesterday morning."

Rukia didn't need to say anything any further for Byakuya to be able to tell that she had done very well in the exam she mentioned. After all, the look on her face had told him everything he needed to know.

"I take it you've done well?"

To the remark, Rukia flashed him yet another smile.

"Do you want to guess which class I'm assigned to for the next term?"

"I don't think I'd be so good at guessing since I do not know much about the academy's class system."

Rukia blinked twice before she asked just to confirm, "You don't?"

"It is not as if I have ever attended the Shinō Academy, Rukia-kun," Byakuya stated, and it wasn't a lie.

Although Byakuya had taken an entrance exam before he was accepted into the Goteijūsantai as a Shinigami all those decades ago, he hadn't attended, let alone graduated from, the Shinō Academy.

With his family's influences and his grandfather's connections, Byakuya learned each of the skills required for being Shinigami from people who were considered as masters of each specific art.

"Then how—?"

"The previous head of the Kuchiki family, Ginrei-sama, taught me a few things about zanjutsu," Byakuya explained and left it at that since he didn't see any point in dropping all the names of all people who had been his mentors at some point in time.

"Oh..." Rukia uttered, obviously surprised. "I always assumed that you have, since your skills are so advanced that you could knock an actual Shinigami out in just one hit. I guess I should have asked instead of just assuming."

Byakuya almost smiled at that remark. After all, if she had chosen to ask rather than to assume, they would probably not be having that conversation, since she would have known by then who he was or wasn't.

"Perhaps," he replied. "But in any case, you still haven't told me about your exam result."

"Ah, that's right! Well, since you didn't know much about the class system, I guess I should first tell you that students are ranked and placed in classes according to how well they performed in the exam starting from Class 1 to whatever class number it is. The top students will be put in Class 1 which is an advanced class in which students get to study in an accelerated program," she explained. "Anyway, I'm currently in Class 8, but in the next term, I'll be placed in Class 2."

"In other word, it is a big improvement."

"Yes, Seike-san! And I have you to thank for that," she said with a smile.

He supposed he would have shown more excitement if he hadn't felt so torn by it.

On the one hand, he was happy for her since all of her hard work had paid off and she was getting closer to her goal of becoming an upstanding Shinigami. On the other, he wished she had not had any talent at all, since it would mean that all she would ever become was an unseat officer who would not be assigned to any dangerous missions.

However, seeing a proud and happy look on her face made him believe that training her was indeed the right decision because he'd rather see that look than to see the dismal look that usually adorned her face whenever she compared herself to that red-haired friend of hers and talked about how she wanted to catch up with that man.

"There's no need to thank me for anything. The result of your exam comes from your own hard work. All I've done was giving you a few pointers," he replied. "Besides, I do get paid with your homemade bento, so I'd say it's already a fair trade."

Rukia blushed slightly at his words.

"I'm sure the food at the Kuchiki Mansion tastes much better than my cooking," she mumbled. She then furrowed her brows slightly before she added, "Unless, of course, you think it's a fair trade because you are the one who cooks for that household and are already tired of having to cook for yourself."

Byakuya blinked once before he finally came to the conclusion that since Rukia thought he was a butler, she assumed that cooking might also be a part of his job description.

"The family hires chefs for that," he noted.

"Right… so what does a butler do anyway?"

"Managing all staff to make sure that everything in the house runs smoothly and giving other services that the master of the house may require," Byakuya replied, and since he had a feeling that she might try to get more details about him, he decided to change the subject completely by saying, "But you really don't need to know about all the boring details. Anyway, congratulations, Rukia-kun, though I must say it doesn't surprise me at all that you've done well."

"Thank you, Seike-san."

"At any rate, we've wasted quite a lot of time already today, so shall we proceed with the training?"

"Sure, Seike-san. Let me grab my sword first."

With that, Rukia quickly ran back to the rock where she had left her stuff in order to pick up her wooden sword so that they could begin training.

Watching her, Byakuya could only wonder how much longer he would be able to keep from coming clean with her. After all, whether she realized it or not, she had her way of making him lower his guard and she had also shown him that she was able to see through his mask.

He had definitely allowed himself to get too close to her, and he had a feeling that soon things would spiral out of his control, but despite knowing so, he still couldn't bring himself to walk away.


	7. Free To Be You And Me

A/N: Once again, I'd like to apologize for taking this long to update despite how I've promised to update faster and write a longer chapter. Several things came up in the past months and not all of those were good news, so it took me quite a bit of time to collect enough focus to start writing again. Therefore, I'd like to thank everyone who's still patiently following this story. I hope this installment is worth the wait, but in any case, comments and criticisms are welcome as always. Till next time (hopefully soon.)

* * *

**Chapter 7: Free To Be You And Me**

Rukia panted slightly as she tried her best to deflect every strike that Byakuya aimed at her and then search for opportunity to try to attack him back.

Although she had been training under his instruction for almost three months, it was the first time they actually sparred since Byakuya once noted that a sparring session wouldn't be any beneficial to her until after she had perfected all her movements and postures. Therefore, Rukia was very excited when he suggested that they spar in order to see how well she would adapt her skills into a battle.

Of course, when she agreed to his suggestion, she had thought he would go a little easier on her. However, she realized very soon after the sparring session started that she shouldn't have held such expectation. After all, for him to suggest that she was ready to spar meant that he believed in the level of her skills, probably more so than she did herself, and that he would expect no less than perfection from her.

If she hadn't been too busy either dodging or parrying Byakuya's attacks, Rukia's mind might have been plagued by the question of whether he was disappointed with her performance, considering how they had only been sparring for a short moment and yet Rukia was already almost out of breath.

Ignoring her own exhaustion, Rukia launched yet another attack at Byakuya who dodged it with ease and then used the moment she slightly lost her balance to struck down at her. Since there was not enough time for her to parry his attack, all Rukia could do was closing her eyes and preparing for the pain to come. Byakuya might not have unsheathed his sword when he sparred with her, but it would still definitely hurt if she was hit.

However, she didn't feel any pain. Slowly opening her eyes, Rukia saw that Byakuya had stopped just less than an inch before his sword touched her skin.

The moment their eyes met, Byakuya drew his sheathed sword back and then reattached the zanpakutō to his obi sash signifying that their sparring session ended.

"Let's call it a day."

"But I can still keep going, Seike-san," she protested despite how breathless she sounded.

He furrowed his brows slightly. "You really want to continue?"

"Of course! I mean, I might not have done well, but I'm starting to get a hang of it now, so—"

Byakuya glanced up to the sky for a brief moment before he turned his slate eyes back to Rukia.

"Then I suppose we can continue after a lunch break, unless, of course, you already have other plans for this afternoon."

It was then that Rukia noticed that the sun was already in the middle of the sky, indicating that it was already midday. She highly doubted Byakuya made that suggestion because the man was hungry since he showed no sign of hunger or exhaustion during the time they sparred. In fact, she believed he only said so knowing that she was already depleted but too stubborn to admit, much less ask for a break herself. But no matter what his ground for that suggestion actually was, she still beamed visibly.

"No, Seike-san, I don't have any other plan."

Byakuya simply nodded at Rukia's remark before he headed to the rock where they usually sat and had their lunch together. Thus, Rukia quickly followed him there.

Once they arrived to the rock, Rukia brought out the lunch boxes that she had prepared for the two of them out of her bag before she slightly opened the lid of one box, peeked inside and then closed the lid back and handed the box to Byakuya once she was certain that she wouldn't give him the wrong one like she had done at that first time she cooked for him.

Accepting the lunch box, Byakuya sat down on the rock and then asked, "May I ask you a personal question, Rukia-kun?"

Rukia raised an eyebrow at the sudden question. She handed Byakuya a pair of chopsticks before she replied, "That would depend on how personal it is."

"Why do you want to be a Shinigami?"

She laughed lightly at the question since that wasn't the question she would expect to hear when someone asked her if they could ask about something personal.

"That isn't much of a personal question, Seike-san," she commented as she moved to pick her own lunch box and then sat down next to Byakuya on the rock. Opening her lunch box, she added, "That's basically one of the first questions you ask your fellow students at the Shinō Academy when you tried to get to know them."

Byakuya nodded to show that he agreed with her point. He then explained:

"I just figure there might be some personal reasons behind it, since I can see how dedicated you are to get good grades and be moved into a good class."

Although Rukia could have told him there was no special reason other than that she was a hardworking person and wanted to give her best at everything she did, which, of course, was not a lie; she felt he deserved better than just a generic reply after all the help and support he had been giving to her so far.

She took a moment to phrase her answer before she responded:

"If you had asked me this question six months ago, I would have told you that it was solely because I needed to get away from that poor quality life in the slum that is also known as Inuzuri and they said that if you became a Shinigami, you'd be allowed to live in Seireitei, the most beautiful and civilized city in Soul Society."

"But you have other reasons now?"

Rukia's expression when she answered to Byakuya was tender.

"Well, the fact that being a Shinigami is my ticket to a better life still hasn't changed," she admitted before she cast her eyes down to the lunch box that was placed on her lap. "But I guess now I have a reason to want to become a good Shinigami rather than just a mediocre one. You see, three months ago I received a scholarship from this mysterious man. I don't know his name or anything about him at all, except that he is a nobleman who has recently lost his wife and that he uses a cherry blossom emblem as his personal seal. Even so, I still feel that I owe it to him to do my best. Of course, my best might not be good enough in comparison to other students in the academy, but I'd still like to try. After all, I want him to feel that he didn't make a mistake when he chose to be my benefactor and that he could be proud of me."

Having said what she had, Rukia couldn't help wondering why she chose to tell him about her mysterious benefactor and even reveal to him how insecure she felt about her own skills when she always tried to hide all of her worries and insecurities under her tough, confident mask and never discussed them even to Renji whom she had been friends with for a decade. Yet, somehow, it felt natural to discuss them with this man before her.

She couldn't really tell why, but she felt that she didn't need to put up any brave front around him and could simply be herself because he wouldn't judge her for it. It was quite strange that she should feel that way about him when she hated feeling insecure and vulnerable and would hate it even more if anyone should find out that she had weaknesses at all.

Perhaps it was because he never seemed to judge her for her shortcomings or perhaps it was because he was different from all those people she knew from her days in Inuzuri. She didn't really know, but something deep down told her she could trust him.

Yet even so, she still found it necessary to ask, "You probably find it very stupid, don't you?"

Byakuya shook his head. "No, Rukia-kun, not at all."

Rukia's lips curved into a hint of a smile. Although she already knew he wouldn't find it stupid, it was still nice to hear him actually say so out loud.

"Speaking of being a Shinigami, do you ever want to be one, Seike-san?" she wondered.

She had seen how good his skills were, and the more she thought about it, the more she wondered why he stuck as a butler. Not that she had anything against the profession or would think less of Byakuya for being one, but she couldn't understand why he would choose to serve a noble family when he could certainly have been able to attain a respectable position the Goteijūsantai with his skills.

Meanwhile, Byakuya blinked at the question as if it was something that he never expected her to ask. He then sighed softly before he looked out to the empty space in front of them.

"To be honest, I never really put any thought into what I'd want to do if I could choose a different path in life," he admitted. "Perhaps I'd be a Shinigami or perhaps I'd be something with a more peaceful nature like a calligrapher or a florist."

Rukia took a moment to imagine Byakuya in both jobs he suggested before she smiled at the image that popped up in her head.

"A florist?"

"I used to take up ikebana as a hobby when I was young, and I was quite good at it," he said, completely deadpan.

The smile on Rukia's face got slightly broader as she commented, "I'm sure if you were a florist, your shop would be crowded with female customers, Seike-san."

Byakuya looked down toward the unopened lunch box on his lap. The expression on his face was somewhat demure and almost sad.

"I am not popular with women, Rukia-kun."

While Rukia would beg to differ, since she couldn't see why women wouldn't be attracted to a man of his look, she decided to bite her tongue and keep her mouth shut. After all, it would seem like an inappropriate thing for her to say, since it might sound like she was flirting with him or something along that line, and it seemed to her that what she had said earlier might have already made the atmosphere awkward enough.

Rukia then furrowed her brows as the subject suddenly made her wonder if Byakuya had been, if not still was, romantically involved with someone because what he had just said suggested that he was single, or at least not confident about his own appeal. However, just like her previous thought, she didn't think it was an appropriate subject. After all, he was her trainer, and she his student. It was already improper enough that she found him attractive.

"If you say so, Seike-san," she said before her mind could go more astray. "Anyway, we should start eating. I made tonkatsu and spicy wakame salad today, so I hope you like it."

It might or might not be a subtle change of subject, but Byakuya didn't make any comment about it as he nodded in response. He gingerly opened the lid of the lunch box and took a moment to appreciate the careful way the food was arranged in the box before he lifted up his chopsticks and began to eat.

Rukia watched him for a moment before she, too, started eating.

Lunch went on rather quietly. Although Rukia had made it a habit to turn to observe Byakuya from time to time during the time he was eating, she had only done so in order to determine which food he enjoyed. However, unlike in their previous meetings, that day she looked at him while thinking about what she had already found out about him and what still remained mystery.

It was then that she realized she didn't know all that much about him. She might have known his name, where he worked, what he did as a hobby and how he got his Shinigami's skills; but everything else about him was still a blank picture to her. He never said anything about his personal life unless asked, and even if she should ask, his answer would still seem somewhat ambiguous.

If anybody else had acted in that manner, Rukia would have deemed that person untrustworthy and stayed clear of him by then, but since it was Byakuya, she simply shrugged it off, telling herself everyone had things they didn't wish to discuss. Perhaps it was because since the first time they met, he had done nothing but helping her, and despite how she felt he was hiding something, she still felt that he genuinely cared about her, which wasn't something she could say about most of the people she had met.

"Even now I still don't understand why you've been so kind to me."

Rukia didn't realize she had spoken those words aloud until she felt Byakuya's eyes on her. Once she realized what she had let slip, she bit her lower lip and gave him a sheepish look.

"Not that I'm saying you need to have any ulterior motives or anything," she quickly added. "It's just that sometimes, I can't help wondering of all people in this world that you could have chosen to help, why me?"

Byakuya looked at her for a moment as he contemplated his answer. He then averted his eyes before he explained:

"I saw how hard you practiced using your sword, and I saw how frustrated you were when you couldn't do it right and didn't quite know how to fix the mistakes either. I suppose you could say I could relate to that because I've also worked hard but still failed at certain things, so when you asked me for a few pointers, it wasn't a difficult decision for me to make."

Rukia furrowed her brows.

"It's hard to believe you've failed at something, Seike-san," she noted. "I mean, to me, you seem like a kind of guy who would succeed at everything he does without much effort."

"You give me too much credit, Rukia-kun," he said. "I'm just a man, and I have to work just as hard as anybody else, if not harder, to get to where I am now. As for my skills in Shinigami arts, if you practice hard enough, you'll be able to get to my level too."

Rukia smiled at that. "Well, I'll have to work really hard for that then."

* * *

Unlike every Saturday before where they would bid their farewell after they finished having lunch, that day they continued to train afterward. And Byakuya had to admit that the conversations he had with Rukia that day was too close for comfort that he couldn't quite clear his mind when their afternoon session began.

It wasn't just because he almost revealed to her that he was not merely a faithful butler for the Kuchiki family; but it was also because he was close to telling her about what he had never discussed with anyone—about the burden of being born as the heir to the Kuchiki family and having his future decided for him before he even had a chance to contemplate whether such future was what he truly wanted. About how being a Shinigami wasn't his dream but rather something he was told since he was young that he was supposed to be, and be a high rank one at that. How hard he had to work to get to where he was and yet people would still think that he easily got there from the influence of his clan. How despite how people thought he could have anyone he wanted at his beck and call, the one woman he loved with every fiber of his being had never truly loved him in return.

He wasn't sure if he should be glad that Rukia didn't seem to notice and thus didn't press for a more honest answer because he found it increasingly more difficult to continue giving her less than the whole truth. Still, it didn't stop him from feeling guilty no matter how hard he had tried to convince himself that he was keeping the truth from the girl for her own sake.

He was, more or less, distracted by his own thoughts that he almost allowed Rukia's sword to graze his skin. Not that it would actually injure him if the attack should actually land, since Rukia was merely using a wooden sword and the only weapon that could injure a soul was a zanpakutō. But the fact that the tip of Rukia's sword almost touched him was still enough to put Byakuya's mind back to the sparring match he was having with her.

Byakuya dodged the sword just before it could hit. He then parried all the strikes that followed afterward. He would have to say that Rukia's move became more fluid after she gained some more confidence. However, she still left too many openings after each strike, and he had no qualm of using them against her.

He waited until Rukia came at him with another strike before he quickly dodged to the side, caught the grip of her sword and then swiftly disarmed her.

"Urgh!" she grunted in frustration. "I thought for sure I'd land at least one hit on you this time, Seike-san."

"With enough practice, someday you'd be able to," he commented, and Byakuya didn't say so simply to give her encouragement. He truly believed that someday she would be able to reach his level. "As of now, you left too many openings after every strike you made. If this was a real battle, you might not live to make another strike. After all, in a real battlefield, your enemy would not go easy on you because you're a novice."

Rukia bit her lower lip.

"I know, Seike-san. I'll put more effort into my practice," she promised. "I won't disappoint you."

Byakuya eyed Rukia for a long moment. He understood why she thought he would be disappointed, even though the truth was he was more concerned than disappointed. After all, the fact that she chose to become a Shinigami meant that she would have a dangerous path in front of her, and despite how none of the captains would assign his or her underlings to a task too difficult to handle, the unexpected could always happen; so he wanted to make sure that if the unexpected happened, she would be able to defend herself.

"I know you won't," he replied before he handed the bokken he had been holding since he disarmed her back to Rukia. Then he remarked, "Now let's try again, but instead of rushing to get the first strike, plan your moves before you come at me."

* * *

They continued to train together for another hour before they bid each other farewell and part ways. Rukia returned to her dorm at the Shinō Academy while Byakuya chose to linger behind at the training field for another moment.

Although he might have led Rukia to believe that he wanted to train a little on his own to make up for the fact that he arrived to the field late and didn't get to train earlier that morning, the truth was Byakuya didn't feel like going home to the Kuchiki Mansion where he might be approached by other elders about the same issue. However, he couldn't think of anywhere else to be.

He could, of course, go to the Sixth Division, but he didn't feel like working on his day off. And, of course, there was at least one tea party hosted at some nobleman's house that he would be welcome to attend if he felt like doing so, but he wasn't in the mood for putting on a mask and pretending that he enjoyed their company either.

He was mentally too tired for that. Because as much as his meeting with Rukia had lightened up his mood, it also made him feel guilty for not telling her he was Kuchiki Byakuya, the twenty-eighth head of the Kuchiki family and not Seike, the butler, as she assumed he was, and that guilt kept weighing him down.

'_Well, I hate to say this now, but I've already warned you a__bout__ this, Byakuya,'_ Senbonzakura noted softly from the back of Byakuya's mind.

'_Yes, several times,' _Byakuya responded.

'_But then I guess, you wouldn't be able to be this true about yourself with her if she knew who you are because then, you'd feel compelled to act the way people expect a head of a great noble house to behave, unlike now where you could just be you,'_ Senbonzakura opined. _'It's amazing how just a name could change how you behave around people and how people behave around you.'_

Byakuya couldn't disagree with his zanpakutō.

Being born as the heir to one of the five great noble houses, he had been taught since he was young to be mindful of people who approached him as their intentions for getting close to him might not be so noble. Thus, he never allowed anyone to get too close or shared any personal information that could be considered his weaknesses with anyone lest they be used against him or his family. The fact that he was told that an aristocrat was supposed to be aloof and apathetic also made him even more unapproachable.

With Rukia, however, he was known to her as Seike Byakuya, an ordinary butler who, for all she knew, didn't have anything to his name. He didn't need to live up to any image in order to try to impress her. He could freely express himself without worrying that she might use anything he let on against him.

For a brief moment, Byakuya wondered if it would have been better if he was born in a world where the name Kuchiki meant nothing to anyone, and if he would prefer that world to one he was living in. He wondered if he would still be the man that he was or be an entirely different person, with different codes and beliefs.

'_Yes, it's amazing,' _the Shinigami agreed. _'I've always wondered how different my life would have been if I was just an ordinary man. Would it be for the better or for the worse?'_

'_Who knows?' _the zanpakutō replied, and Byakuya could almost sense Senbonzakura shrugging as he did._ 'But __this is who you are, Byakuya, and we both know there are people who would kill to be in your position, so appreciate what this life offer__s__ you and then make the best out of it. __I suggest you can start by going home and telling your elders that __now __you're the head of the house, so they should all abide by your rules rather than the ones that were set by some dead predecessors.__'_

Byakuya actually chuckled at his zanpakutō's suggestion. Senbonzakura could be wise when he wanted to, and his words would have been more profound if he hadn't added that last sentence.

'_I'm serious, Byakuya,' _the zanpakutō remarked, obviously knowing what Byakuya was thinking. _'You and I both know, if anyone in your division ever challenged your authority, you wouldn't hesitate to give them the punishment they deserve. However, you're lenient with your elders despite the lack of respect they show you, and that's why they won't ever show you their respect and will always give you their holier-than-thou attitudes.'_

'_And what do you expect me to do about that, Senbonzakura? Throw them into some random jail for challenging my authority?' _Byakuya inquired wearily._ '__As satisfying as that idea may seem __to me__ at times, it wouldn't make them respect me. __At best, they would fear me, and at worst, they would hate m__e, __that is if they haven't already__.__'_

Byakuya could hear the zanpakutō sigh.

'_Sometimes, I don't know why you even bother with them, Byakuya,' _Senbonzakura commented. _'The only thing they're good for is making your life miserabl__e, and you'd be much better off without their venomous attitudes. Y__ou don't need them to survive while I'm not sure if I could say the same __about them.__'_

'_Because Ginrei-jii-sama has entrusted the duty of protecting this family to me when he named me his heir, and I would not let him down,' _Byakuya responded quite simply._ 'I'll find a way to deal with the elders, somehow, Senbonzakura, so don't worry about me.'_

* * *

Meanwhile, back in Seireitei, Rukia was dragging Renji along with her from one stationery store to another, looking for some beautiful, quality greeting card that came at an affordable price so that she could use it to write her message and send to her benefactor.

Renji, obviously, did not enjoy being dragged around; however, he still went with her to every shop she wanted to visit and watched how she spent a lot of time looking at every card on the shelf just to put them all back to the shelf.

"Can't you just choose one already? It's just a greeting card anyway," he commented after he had finally had enough of watching her.

"It's _not_ just a card, you idiot," she replied. "It's supposed to help me express my gratitude to Kanzan-dono."

Since Renji knew there was no point in arguing with his friend, he simply sighed and gave in.

"Fine. Whatever. So what exactly are you looking for anyway?" he wondered. "I mean, we've gone to a few stores already but you haven't bought anything."

"I'm not sure," Rukia confessed with a shrug. "Just something that feels right, I guess."

Renji sighed again, resigning to the fact that they might not find that "something that feels right" any time soon since Rukia could be very picky when it came to things that she would send to her benefactor. Knowing that if he didn't help, they might spend the rest of the afternoon going from one shop to another, Renji decided to look through all cards on the shelf and searched for what might "feel right". It took him a moment before he picked up one set and show it to his friend.

"Hey, how about this one?" he asked, showing her a card that was painted with the picture of cherry blossom branches. "He used sakura scented paper, right? So that guy probably likes this."

Rukia wrinkled her nose in response. "It's summer now, you know?"

"So?" Renji asked, furrowing his brows.

Rukia rolled her eyes.

"So sakura represents spring, not summer," she pointed. "And even if it's still spring, sakura is Kanzan-dono's thing, so I don't want him to think I'm copying his style or trying too hard to appeal to his taste."

Renji rolled his eyes and bit his tongue before he could ask her if that wasn't what Rukia was doing, trying to appeal to her benefactor's taste. He put the card back to its shelf and looked for something else. Soon enough, he presented her a card that was cut into a shape of long, pointy ear, bunny.

"How about this one? You like bunnies, right? So this can be considered your style, and he definitely won't think you're trying too hard."

Rukia's violet eyes lit up in excitement. It was obvious that she liked the design. However, much to Renji's surprise, she handed it back to him.

"It's cute, but I'm sending a card to an old gentleman here, and the last thing I want is for him to think that I'm childish."

Again, Renji sighed.

"You're so hard to please, you know that?"

Rukia shrugged, not in the mood to argue. She then continued to search the shelf for a card that might suit her requirement.

They ended up leaving that store just to visit a few other store afterward. Rukia never seemed to be satisfied by anything that was on the shelf despite how hard Renji tried to convince her that some of the cards they saw were perfect for the occasion.

They kept arguing and shooting down each other's options, until they were suddenly interrupted by an unfamiliar voice.

"I cannot help overhearing your conversation, so may I suggest that you look for a card in a store that specializes on card designing rather than looking for one in a stationery store? There is one just two blocks from here called the Frozen Flower. Their cards are of good quality and the price is reasonable."

Rukia quickly turned around to see the person who made the suggestion, and there she saw a man with short and slightly curly brown hair. His brown eyes were hidden behind think eyeglasses. The man wore white robe over what appeared to be a shihakushō. She almost asked him who he was; however, before she had a chance to voice her words, Renji reached his hand to her head and then forced her to bow together with him.

"Good afternoon, Aizen-taichō," Renji said. Then upon noticing that the man wasn't there by himself but was accompanied by the silver-haired man that was his lieutenant, Renji added, "Ichimaru-fukutaichō."

As Renji mentioned another man's name, Rukia glanced quickly at him and noted how the man had silver hair and wore a smile so wide that his eyes were completely close. She found that smile rather creepy and if it wasn't for the badge he was wearing on his arm, she wouldn't believe that he was actually a lieutenant.

Captain Aizen gave Renji and Rukia a warm smile.

"You are Abarai-kun, yes?" he asked. "I recall you were one of the three first-year students that stayed back and fought those huge hollows that attacked the students on the konsō training trip a few months ago."

"Yes, sir," Renji replied proudly. "It's an honor that you could remember me."

"Well, it is not every day that one would witness such courageous act," Aizen said to Renji before he turned his attention to Rukia. "I do not think we have met, however."

"No, sir, we haven't," Rukia replied, and when she saw the captain raise his brow slightly, she supposed she should introduce herself to the man. "I'm also a first-year student, Nanashi Rukia."

"Nice to meet you, Nanashi-kun."

Seeing that if no one said anything, they would probably just stand there in an awkward silence, Renji smiled sheepishly and remarked, "Well, you see, Aizen-taichō, my friend Rukia and I are just picking a card for her—"

"Grandfather," Rukia finished the line for him. Although she didn't think there would be any harm if Renji should say that she had a benefactor since she doubted the captain would care about some random student he never met before that day, she still didn't feel like telling him, especially when she felt a strange vibe from that silver-haired companion of his even though Gin had yet to open his mouth to utter any words to them.

"Yes, that," Renji backed her up even though he knew Rukia didn't have a grandfather. "So we must apologize if we've been too loud and disturb you."

"Actually I should be the one to apologize for my rudeness since I suddenly interrupted your conversation," Aizen said with a kind tone.

"There's no need to apologize, sir," Rukia replied. "And by the way, thank you for your advice. Renji and I will go and check out cards in that store you mentioned earlier."

"Do not let us stop you," Aizen stated before he flashed both Renji and Rukia yet another warm smile.

"Well, then we'll take our leave," Renji remarked. "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir."

With that, Renji bowed to the captain and his lieutenant, and seeing so, Rukia followed his example. As they left the shop, Rukia couldn't help feeling as if Aizen and Ichimaru's eyes were following them.

As soon as she was certain that they were out of the two Shinigami's hearing range, Rukia asked:

"Was that the captain that Hinamori-san always talks about?"

"Yeah, that's him," Renji confirmed. "I wish you had seen him when he slayed those hollows, Rukia. He made it seemed so easy when us students could barely hold those hollows off. You know, I used to think I was quite good, but when I saw Aizen-taichō and Ichimaru-fukutaichō that day, I realized my skills were nothing in comparison to theirs."

Rukia's mind flashed briefly back to her training with Byakuya and how she always thought their skills level were so different.

"Yeah, I understand how you feel," she remarked. "But anyway, let's go and check out that store that captain recommended, Renji."

* * *

Back inside the stationery store, it did not escape Gin's notice that his captain still stood and watched the door even after the two students had bid their farewell and left. He briefly wondered if Aizen had a plan for those students, or at least for Abarai Renji, since that boy had caught the captain's interest since he and his friends fought and survived those hollows that attacked the students during the time they went to practice konsō.

"Is there something on your mind, Aizen-taichō?"

"That girl, Nanashi-kun, she seems to possess quite a high amount of spiritual power for a student, yet I do not recall having seen her name in the list of advanced students."

Gin took a moment to think about the names of students from advanced class, and while he had to admit that he couldn't remember all of them, he had to say that Nanashi Rukia was a name that would be difficult to forget.

"Maybe she's one of those that has the potential but doesn't know how to develop it?" Gin suggested. "I can snoop around for her details if you're interested, though I must say I don't sense anything too special from her.

Aizen shook his head.

"That will not be necessary, Gin. It is quite common for captains and their lieutenants to be interested in advanced students. However, it may raise suspicion if they are interested in some random students," he observed. "I merely feel that her face is somewhat familiar as if I've seen it somewhere before, I just cannot recall where and when."

"Well, if you cannot recall, then I doubt she's important," Gin observed. "Now shouldn't we look for the things you require for your next calligraphy lecture, taichō?"

Aizen nodded in agreement. After all, Gin was right. Aizen would never forget anyone should they be important to his plan, and he didn't see how that girl would become a crucial piece in his plan in any way whatsoever. Therefore, he brushed that thought aside so he could focus on the task in front of him.

It would be long until Aizen would look back to that day and think to himself that perhaps he should have pursued that thought if only for a little while longer.


	8. Paved With Good Intentions

A/N: Many thanks to all who's still patiently following this story up until this point. I'm sorry it took so long for me to publish a new chapter and for not replying to any reviews for the previous chapter, my work is usually busiest at the first and the last quarters of the year so naturally a hobby has to wait. In any case, happy 2015 and hope to see you again soon.

* * *

**Chapter 8: ****Paved With Good Intentions**

**_"Dear Kanzan-dono,_**

**_The weather is getting hotter after summer has arrived, how have you been?_**

**_Although summer is not my favorite season as the heat generally disagrees with me, I have been doing well._**

**_My academic results have recently come out, and it appears my swordsmanship skill has improved quite a bit since the last time I wrote to you. I am now more confident about handling a sword although I still have a lot to learn before I'd be able to handle an actual zanpakutō._**

**_I'll be promoted to a better class in the next term, so I'm getting closer to becoming a Shinigami that you can be proud of, so please keep me in your prayers until then._**

**_Once again, thank you for all the supports you have given to me so far and I hope that I have not bothered you with my letters. In any case, please take care of yourself and enjoy the summer days._**

**_Respectfully yours,_**

**_Nanashi Rukia"_**

Despite how the lack of finesse in her penmanship should have made a calligrapher master like him cringe, Byakuya still lost count of how many times he had reread the message on the greeting card that Rukia had asked the principal to pass to her benefactor. It was strange that he should do so, since the content in the message was not new to him and not to mention the fact that as Seike, he had heard the same news with even more details from Rukia in person. Still, he found himself rereading the message again when he completed all paperwork in the Sixth Division's office.

Folding the card back to its original state, the nobleman looked at the design of the card which was a simple deep red card decorated with a silver-gold crane made from mizuhiki cords. The card was obviously handmade although Byakuya couldn't tell if Rukia had purchased it from a store or made the card herself.

Byakuya could tell how much thought had been put into every message that the girl had sent to the man she dubbed Kanzan-dono, and as much as he wanted to keep his contact with her to the absolute minimum, he still felt that she deserved at least a short response from him.

Even so, Byakuya didn't quite know how to reply to her letters without repeating what he had already told her in person. After all, Rukia wasn't a stupid person, and while he might still be able to keep her in the dark so far, one small slip would certainly allow her to connect all the dots and figure out the whole truth.

It wasn't as if he expected her never to find out who he was because he knew from the start that she would, but that didn't mean that he didn't hope to delay the inevitable even though he couldn't quite give a rational explanation as to why he should hope for such thing. After all, even if Rukia should find out who he was and no longer want anything to do with him, he would still be able to keep the vow he had given to his late wife and protect her. He didn't really need to interact with Rukia when he could remain as her silent guardian and watch over her from a distance. Yet, there he was, playing different roles under different names, trying his best to convince himself that every choice he had made regarding Rukia had been done out of his best intentions.

Byakuya sighed softly as he absently traced his finger along the edge of the card.

A soft knock on his door suddenly brought Byakuya out of his reverie. He blinked once before he quickly placed the card in his hand back into its envelope and then put the envelope away in the wooden box which he used to keep other letters from Rukia.

Closing the box and then placed it in the left drawer of his desk, Byakuya then responded, "You may enter."

Soon enough the door was slid open to reveal the faithful third seat of his division, Shirogane Ginjirō. The man had tidy appearance and wore standard shihakushō without any customization. The only personal article that seemed to show any style for him was the pair of eyeglasses he wore.

Noticing a look of concern on the third seat's face, Byakuya came to remember that he had more or less made the man worried even though Shirogane might have yet to voice his concerns aloud. He needed to be more focused when he was at work, especially when he plan to become its actual captain and not just a lieutenant acting as a captain like he was then.

Seeing that the third seat did not cross the threshold and come into the office, Byakuya figured whatever brought the third seat there was not confidential and would not take up much of his time.

"What's the matter, Shirogane-san?"

Although Byakuya might have surpassed the man in term of rank and spiritual power then, Shirogane had loyally served the Sixth Division for a few decades longer than Byakuya had. Hence, he had earned enough respect from Byakuya to be addressed with the honorific "san" even though Byakuya rarely addressed anyone with such honorific.

"The Central Library sent words that the reference books you asked for are ready to be picked up," said Shirogane. "Shall I sent some squad member to collect them?"

Glancing at the small chime clock that was placed on his desk and seeing that it was almost at the end of the work hour, Byakuya shook his head.

"Those books are for my personal use, so I'll collect them myself after work," he replied. "Thank you for informing me."

"Then in this case, I'll return to my post now, fukutaichō," the third seat said before he bowed down and prepared to leave Byakuya to his own device.

"Wait a minute, Shirogane-san," Byakuya called just before the third seat could leave the room. "Since you're already here, I'd like to discuss something with you. So unless you have urgent matters to attend to, please come into the office for a moment."

"Of course," the third seat nodded and he stepped inside Byakuya's office before he closed the door behind and then approached Byakuya's desk.

Byakuya motioned his hand to a seat opposite of his own as a gesture for his subordinate to have a seat, which Shirogane took without needing to be prompted again.

"What is it that you want to discuss, Kuchiki-fukutaichō?" Shirogane asked once he was seated.

Byakuya eyed the man in front of him for a brief moment before he remarked, "I thought I should let you know in advance that I have applied for the taishu test."

The third seat blinked once.

"Ah!" he exclaimed. "This explains why you've been acting like there's something on your mind lately."

Although the truth was Byakuya hadn't been all too concerned about the taishu test he was about to take, he didn't think it was necessary to let his third seat know the true cause of his worry. Therefore, he simply nodded.

"I apologize for having caused you worry of late, Shirogane-san," he remarked. "I should have told you about this earlier, but I didn't want to say anything until it become more definite."

Shirogane nodded to show that he understood.

"I understand," he commented. "When will you be taking the test, by the way?"

"The test is scheduled for next month," Byakuya replied. "Of course, aside from the people who are directly involved with the test procedure, no one else knew about this test yet, so I must ask you to keep this information confidential for now."

"My lips are sealed," the third seat remarked. "However, I have to ask why you choose to share this information with me now instead of letting me find out at the same time with everyone else."

"To make a long story short, I'd like to ask you if you would do me the honor of being my second-in-command once I'm officially appointed as a captain."

Shirogane blinked for a few times before he widened his eyes in surprise. If his expression would tell Byakuya anything, it would be that the man didn't really expect to hear that question from Byakuya.

"Huh? But why would you choose me instead of someone from the Kuchiki family?"

Byakuya eyed his subordinate for a moment. He couldn't blame Shirogane for the question, since the top positions in the Sixth Division, namely captain and lieutenant, had been held by members of the Kuchiki family for generations.

"If there was a Kuchiki who could match your skills and experiences, then perhaps I would consider, but since I cannot name one that could, I see no reason why I should not offer the position to the person who is qualified for it. After all, one's advancement in the division should be decided by one's skills and not by one's name, or otherwise there would be no reason for good Shinigami to join and stay in our division," Byakuya replied in a matter-of-fact tone. "But I digress. Please take your time to consider my offer, Shirogane-san. I won't need your answer now, since there's still no guarantee that I'd pass the taishu test to begin with."

Shirogane blinked once before he quickly responded, "I have no doubt that you would pass that test, Kuchiki-fukutaichō. As for your offer, I don't really need to think about it. It'd be a great honor to serve as your lieutenant."

There was a hint of smile on Byakuya's face when he remarked, "Then it is settled. Thank you, Shirogane-san. We shall discuss this again once I pass the taishu test. You may return to your post now."

Taking his cue, Shirogane stood up and bowed to Byakuya once before he headed for the door to get out of Byakuya's office.

Once his subordinate left him alone in his office, Byakuya sighed and pinched the bridge off his nose. He didn't need to be a fortune teller to be able to foretell that his clan council would not agree with his choice of lieutenant either. However, their job was only to give him advice on how to run the family, not how to run a Goteijūsantai division; so he couldn't care less about what they had to say.

Shaking the thought out of his head, Byakuya brought a new piece of paper out of the stack he kept in his drawer. Then he picked up the ink brush and began to write.

* * *

Meanwhile at the Shinō Academy, all the students were leaving their classrooms once the final class of the day was over.

Rukia could be seen leaving her own class and then heading to the direction of the advanced student classroom. She had made and appointment to be in a study group with Renji and his friends in the advanced class, Hinamori Momo and Kira Izuru, so that they could help each other with an assignment for Soul Society's History class, which was one of the compulsory courses for all first-year students.

She was only half way to her destination when she spotted Renji, Hinamori and Kira walking side by side down the hallway. Renji then waved at her in way of greeting just as they approached her.

"Yo, Rukia. How was your class today?"

If she had been alone with Renji, Rukia would probably have gone on about how it had been a boring day for her and how she wished she could attend those interesting classes that were reserved for the students in the advance placement. However, since there were also Hinamori and Kira with them, she didn't think it would be an appropriate response, so she simply shrugged.

"It was so-so, I guess. Nothing interesting happened," she replied, then she turned and gave a hearty smile to the people who were standing by Renji's side. "By the way, thank you for allowing me to join your study group today, Kira-san, Hinamori-san."

"There's no need to thank us, Rukia-san," Kira politely replied as he returned her smile. "We could use more people in our study group anyway."

"Yes, Rukia-chan," Hinamori agreed. "In fact, I'm really glad when you said you could join us. I mean, I thought you might be tied up with your part-time job again."

Rukia's smile faltered slightly at the mention of her part-time jobs. She hadn't mentioned to anyone that she had quit all of them since she received financial support from the mysterious Kanzan-dono. Even Renji, who knew about her benefactor, believed she still kept one part-time job on Saturdays, since that was the excuse she gave to him so that she could go out to Rukongai and train with the Kuchiki family's butler.

"Actually, Hinamori-san, I've saved enough money for the thing I wanted to buy, so I only work part-time on Saturdays now."

"I see. That's great, Rukia-chan. That means you're going to have more time to study with us," Hinamori said, practically beaming at the idea.

"So are we heading to the library building to find references for the assignment?" Rukia asked, changing the subject back to the reason why they made that appointment to begin with.

"Nah," Renji replied then pointing at the man who had short blond hair with a bang that falls just over his left eyes, he added, "Kira here suggested that we go to the Central Library since there are more reference books there than in the academy's library. He's gonna lead the way there, so just come with us."

"Alright, but I didn't know there's another library in the campus," Rukia commented before she moved to walk alongside Renji. Then the four students started walking to the Central Library together.

"Actually, Rukia-san, the Central Library isn't a part of the academy's campus," Kira said, correcting Rukia's misunderstanding. "It's a public library, located in the heart of Seireitei. It has greater collections of books, documents and records than what we have here at the academy's library. And I think that if we want high grade for our assignment, we should distinct ourselves from the rest of the students and research from information that couldn't be found from the books that are available at the academy's library."

"That's a good idea, Kira-san," Rukia commended. "I like how advanced students think. How did you find out about this library anyway?"

Hinamori turned to give Rukia a disapproved look.

"You can't possibly forget that Kira-kun is a noble who was born and raised here in Seireitei, Rukia-chan?"

Rukia smiled sheepishly. She had learned about Kira's nobility since the first day she met that blond-haired, blue-eyed man, as she and Renji met Kira when Renji basically fell down from the tree into a burial marker of Kira's parent's grave. However, since Kira had been hanging out with the people like her, Renji and Hinamori who were some peasant souls from Rukongai, sometimes it slipped her mind that he was, in actuality, a noble.

"Ah, I'm sorry, Kira-san. It's just that you've been hanging out with us a lot, so it slips my mind sometimes," Rukia quickly apologized.

"That's alright, Rukia-san. There's no need to apologize," Kira replied with a soft smile. "There are so many noble families in this city that someone who only belongs to a lesser noble family like mine wouldn't be regarded as a noble anyway."

Having heard that, a gleam of interest flashed behind Renji's crimson eyes.

"But even so, you'd still know about important affairs in the noble circle, right, Kira?" Renji suddenly asked, "like who recently died or something like that?"

Rukia furrowed her brows once she heard Renji's question. Somehow, she doubted Renji asked what he had asked just to keep the conversation going, so she elbowed his ribs and gave him the "What the heck are you trying to get at, you stupid?" look.

"I'm just trying to help you find some clues about your Kanzan-dono's true identity, so just be grateful, midget!" Renji replied under his breath, glaring back at Rukia while also rubbing the area of his rib that was elbowed.

Not hearing what had been whispered between Renji and Rukia, Kira turned to Renji and replied:

"Well, if it's something big like that, I'd probably know about it, since I'd have to send their family my condolences," Kira replied. "Why, Abarai-kun?"

Renji opened his mouth to reply, but he stopped himself before he uttered a single word because despite how he wasn't exactly looking at Rukia, he could still feel Rukia's glare burning a hole into him.

"Nothing. I'm just trying to make a conversation. Anyway, just lead the way, Kira," Renji quickly responded before he glanced side way toward Rukia. His sense was correct, Rukia was definitely glaring at him.

Buying Renji's excuse, Kira led the way to said Central Library. He didn't notice that Rukia deliberately stalled her pace and also slowed Renji down by pulling him by his elbow so that the two of them were falling a few step behind him and Hinamori.

"What were you doing just now, idiot?" Rukia asked in a whisper to make sure that neither Kira nor Hinamori would hear their conversation.

"Now why are acting like you're mad at me? I was just trying to help you figure out who your benefactor is," Renji returned in the same manner. His voice showed that he was equally annoyed with Rukia as she was with him. "Kira could be a useful source of information."

"And what exactly are you going to tell Kira-san when he asked you why you suddenly asked him questions about a noble lady who had recently passed?" she asked in a low tone. She then sighed softly before she added with a hint of gratefulness in her voice, "I know you meant well, Renji, and more than anyone, I want to know who Kanzan-dono actually is, but I don't want to use a sneaky way to find out."

"Why not? It's not like we're going to tell anybody after we find out."

"Well, it's about respect, Renji," Rukia said in a serious tone. "If he wants to remain anonymous, I trust that he has good reasons for it. I'm not going to invade his privacy and search for more information than he's willing to share just so that I can satisfy my own curiosity. Besides, what good would it do to find out who he actually is? It's not like we can randomly approach him with him being noble and all. "

"But—"

"No buts," Rukia interrupted before Renji could begin to protest. "Kanzan-dono is my benefactor, so I get the final say whether we should try to find out about his identity or not, and I say we respect his wish to be anonymous."

Renji groaned, obviously displeased. Rukia might have thought the identity of her benefactor was none of Renji's business so he shouldn't have stuck his nose where it didn't belong, but he wouldn't be able to let the subject go until he was assured that this Kanzan-dono wasn't some shady guy who had impure intentions toward Rukia.

"You're too trusting, Rukia."

With that said, Renji pulled his elbow out of Rukia's grip and then fastened his pace in order to catch up with Kira and Hinamori.

Rukia sighed softly, knowing all full well that Renji wasn't happy with her decision at all. If she hadn't known any better, she would have been convinced that he was jealous of Kanzan-dono. However, knowing Renji, he was just being his overprotective self and became too worried about things that shouldn't have concerned him to begin with.

Shaking her head, Rukia then quicken her pace so that she could catch up with all her friends.

* * *

The sun had already set when Byakuya finally left his office and headed to the Central Library. Although it was still early in the evening, not many people were seen on the street, so it was a rather quiet walk for Byakuya. Or at least, it had been until he met Ichimaru Gin just outside of the library.

Even though the silver-haired lieutenant was carrying a few books, he still managed to wave at Byakuya as if to make sure that he would catch the nobleman's attention.

If it hadn't been for the fact that he met the man when Ichimaru came out of the library, Byakuya might have thought the lieutenant of the Fifth Division was stalking him again. After all, the ever-so smiling man always appeared out of nowhere and intercepted his path just to start some random conversations that served no other purpose aside from wasting Byakuya's time. However, since the man was there first, Byakuya could only assume it was just some unpleasant coincidence.

"Good evening, rokubantai-fukutaichō-san," the silver-haired lieutenant greeted with a smile. "What a pleasant surprise!"

If Byakuya hadn't possessed such a high level of self-control, he would have already sighed in exasperation as it seemed to him that he would have to put up with yet another random conversation with that overly friendly man. However, with his level of self-control, all Byakuya did was blandly replying to the greeting.

"Ichimaru."

Even after he received such a curt response, Gin's smile did not fade. In fact, his smile seemed to be wider as if it pleased him to know that he somehow got under Byakuya's skin.

"Do you happen to have a few minutes to spare?" Gin asked, obviously not caring about how Byakuya didn't seem to want to converse with him. "There's something I've been meaning to talk to you."

Byakuya almost said that he didn't, but when he thought about it again, he would rather talk to the lieutenant of the Fifth Division then and there than to have that lieutenant stalked him later just so the man could talk to him about some random nonsense.

"If you'd make it short," he responded. "The library will be closed in half an hour and I want to pick up my reserved books today."

"Oh, this will only take a few minutes, Kuchiki-san. You'll be able to pick up your books without any problems."

Byakuya suppressed the urge to sigh. It appeared his conversation with Ichimaru Gin would be much longer than he anticipated, and that was never a good thing.

"State your business, then."

"Well, Aizen-taichō and I went to a stationery store a few days ago, and we met this girl, I believe her name was Nanashi Rukia-chan," Gin began. "I couldn't place where I've seen her face at first, but then later I realized how much she looked like your late wife."

Byakuya almost flinched when Ichimaru mentioned Rukia's by name. However, much to his credit, his expression remained mostly the same, except for his pupils which constricted slightly. He wasn't sure why Ichimaru should mention her unless the man had somehow found out about the connection that he had with Rukia and wanted to hold such information against him.

Even though he had already expected the worst, Lord Kuchiki still put on his best nonchalant face and spoke as if the subject matter didn't concern him at all, "She couldn't have looked that much like my wife if you did not notice the resemblance right away."

Gin chuckled at that.

"You would be right if I got to meet your late wife on a regular basis while she was alive, but since she rarely made public appearances and I had only met her in person once, you should commend my talent for remembering faces."

Byakuya narrowed his gaze slightly as he eyed Gin.

"Assuming that you were right and the girl actually resembles Hisana, why would it concern me? It is not as if I am in search for my wife's shadow."

Gin's smile faltered slightly as he noticed a slight edge in Byakuya's voice which implied that his words might have rubbed the noble the wrong way.

"I am not saying that you are, Kuchiki-san," Gin quickly remarked to assure Byakuya that it was not what he tried to imply when he brought up Rukia. "It is just that don't think it's a coincidence for two unrelated people to look that much alike, so I thought I should warn you about her."

"Warn me? Why?"

Gin looked at Byakuya as if he didn't expect to hear that question from Byakuya. However, he still explained:

"As I said, Kuchiki-san, I don't think it is a coincidence that two unrelated people should look so much alike, and not to mention how this girl appeared in Seireitei not so long after Hisana-san passed away. So I decided to look her up just to be sure. At first, it seems she is just some poor Shinō Academy's student, but it turns out she's being given financial support by some mysterious noble, which means she could be an assassin hired by your enemy to seduce you with the same face as your wife, get you to lower your guard and then kill you."

As much as he hated to admit that Gin made a good point, Byakuya still couldn't deny that he would be suspicious of Rukia as well had he not been the mysterious noble who gave her said financial support himself.

"If I could be so foolish as to fall for such a cheap ploy and even get killed by a mere student, then I suppose I deserve to die," Byakuya commented blandly as if they were not discussing about him and his potential assassination.

"Well, Kuchiki-san, if she really did manage to gain your trust, she wouldn't need to have any combat skills to kill you. All she needed to do was poisoning your food and be done with it."

Byakuya almost smirked at Gin's words. He wished he could have told Gin just to see the man's reaction that if Rukia had intended to kill him, he would have been dead long before Gin had the chance to warn him about her. However, since it would give away everything he had been trying to hide, Byakuya said nothing about it or about the fact that he had long since resigned himself to the idea that Rukia would be the end of him someday.

"That would require me to meet her first," Byakuya commented, "however, I have not met anyone who looked anything relatively like Hisana of late, so I believe you have an overactive imagination, Ichimaru Gin."

"Even if my imagination is overactive, Kuchiki-san, a man of your stature could never be too careful," Gin commented. "I can list bunch of people who would benefit from your downfall."

Byakuya raised an eyebrow at that. "You wouldn't be one of those people, I hope?"

"Would I have bothered to warn you if I was?" Gin returned with a question of his own. "No, Kuchiki-san, I'm only warning you out of good intentions. Besides, what benefit would I gain from your death?"

Byakuya couldn't really answer Gin's last question, since if he were to be honest, he had no idea what kind of scheme Gin was actually cooking since the man's perpetual smiling face made it impossible to read him.

"With you, I cannot really tell for sure," Byakuya pointed, "but I shall heed your warning this time."

Gin's smile widened at Byakuya's response.

"Fair enough," Gin noted, "In this case, I should let you know that Nanashi Rukia-chan is in the library right now, studying with her friends on the third floor in the history section, so you can see her for yourself whether I was right and she actually resembles your late wife. You can let me know the next time we meet."

Byakuya nodded as a response.

"Well then, since I said I wouldn't take too much of your time, I'll be off now. I'll see you later, Kuchiki-san. Bye-bye."

With that said, Gin waved Byakuya goodbye and then left before Byakuya had to prompt him to.

Byakuya sighed softly once the other lieutenant had left his proximity. He then closed his eyes and tried to locate Rukia by her spiritual presence. Content that she was still on the third floor as Ichimaru mentioned, Byakuya went into the library to pick up the books he had reserved.

* * *

Meanwhile, up on the third floor of the Central Library, unaware that she had been the subject of the conversation between two lieutenants of the Goteijūsantai; Rukia was with her friends, skimming through the content of the book to think of the topic that she wanted to write for her assignment.

"Have you all got all the information you need for your paper?" Kira suddenly asked, bringing Rukia out of her trance. "The library is going to be closed soon, so we should pick up the books we want and go down to the check out counter to borrow them."

"Yeah, I'm gonna borrow these," Renji replied, picking up the pile of books in front of him. "You said we can borrow up to ten books at a time, right?"

"Yes, Abarai-kun, and you can keep them for one month," Kira added. "Have you made up your mind, Hinamori-kun, Rukia-san?"

Hinamori nodded in response.

Although Rukia still couldn't decide on the topic for her paper, much less got the information she needed for it, she nodded so that her friends wouldn't have to be concerned for her.

"Yes, Kira-san," Rukia replied with a gentle smile. She then picked up three random books to borrow. Even if she was still unsure which subject she would cover in her paper, it wouldn't hurt to borrow those books as she could read them and try to get some inspiration. "I'll just borrow these."

"Let's go down to the checkout desk, then," Kira suggested, picking the books he wished to borrow before he rose from his seat and led the way to the stair that would lead them all back down to the ground floor where the checkout desk was located.

Rukia, Renji and Hinamori picked up their selected books and followed Kira right behind.

"Do you want me to help you carry those books, Rukia?" Renji asked softly. His tone indicated that he was making a peace offering after their previous argument.

"Nah, I'm fine. It's just a couple of books anyway, but thanks," Rukia replied, hoping that it was enough to tell him that she had no hard feeling about it.

Hearing the way Renji offered to help Rukia carry her book, Kira turned to Hinamori and made the same kind of offer.

"Do you need a hand with your books, Hinamori-kun?" he asked, feeling guilty that he hadn't thought to make that offer before Renji made one to Rukia.

"That's all right, Kira-kun, they're not heavy at all, so I can carry them myself," Hinamori replied with a kind smile. "You can just lead the way to the checkout desk."

Kira nodded before he continued to lead the way with Hinamori walking beside him while Renji and Rukia followed them behind without saying a word to one another after that.

Just as they arrived to the ground floor and were about to walk to the checkout desk. Kira raised a hand in a silence gesture for them all to stop when he spotted the person who was standing at the checkout desk, talking to the library clerk.

"What's wrong, Kira-kun?" Hinamori asked, "Why are we stopping?"

"Let's just wait here until that Shinigami finished checking out his books," Kira suggested, looking straight to the checkout desk where a certain Shinigami was standing.

Hinamori blinked and furrowed her brows as she followed Kira's line of sight to the checkout desk. There, she saw a Shinigami whose face could not be seen clearly from where she stood. The Shinigami was wearing a normal shihakushō with an expensive-looking white scarf. His shoulder-length jet black hair was adorn with a strange hair ornament. Although she could see a lieutenant's arm band, she couldn't read from such a long distance which division that man was from.

"Why, Kira-kun?" Hinamori inquired. "Who is that man?"

"That's Kuchiki-fukutaichō of the Sixth Division."

The answer seemed to have caught Renji's attention, since the red-haired man suddenly leaned over from behind Kira and asked, "Kuchiki? As in one of the five great noble houses Kuchiki?"

Kira nodded. "Yes. He's the head of that clan, actually."

Although Rukia wasn't all too interested about it before, she became curious once she heard Kira mention that the Shinigami in question was the head of the Kuchiki family for it meant that the man was Seike's master.

She looked at the head of the Kuchiki family for a moment and while she couldn't really see his face, she couldn't help thinking that his figure seemed familiar somehow. However, she brushed that thought aside, telling herself that she would have remembered meeting someone like him. After all, the man had an intimidating air about him.

"Is the guy so scary that we have to wait here till he's done?" Renji asked the question that was also on Rukia's mind. "I mean, if he doesn't want some peasants queuing up behind him, he shouldn't have come to a public library to borrow books to begin with."

"Right, Kira-kun, why do you seem so intimidated by him?" Hinamori asked, seemingly agreed with Renji's point.

Kira looked at the Shinigami in question for another moment before he replied:

"Kuchiki-fukutaichō is well known for being aloof to the point of being cold and unfriendly. It was said that he was so cold that he never smiled, not even in his own wedding, nor did he shed a single tear when his wife passed away."

Renji furrowed his brows at that. While the man might have fit Kanzan-dono's profile for being a widower and a noble, the man was so cold in the dealing with his wife that Renji didn't think he would give a financial support to some girl because she held some resemblance to his dead wife.

"Well, maybe he didn't really care for his wife to begin with, and was relieved that she was finally gone?" Renji observed. "I mean, arranged marriage is common for noble people, right?"

Kira shrugged.

"Maybe, Abarai-kun, I don't really know," Kira replied, "Despite him always being the center of people's attentions, not much is known about his personal life and there weren't many rumors or gossips about him either. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that his family is so influential that they could make all rumors and gossips disappear along with the people who dare to spread them."

Rukia furrowed her brows slightly.

"Is the Kuchiki family really that influential?"

Kira nodded.

"So much that if they favor you, they can immediately enter you into the Goteijūsantai without you having to complete your courses at the academy. However, if you somehow offend them, you'd be considered lucky if you were able to graduate from the Shinō Academy at all."

Having heard the explanation, Rukia narrowed her eyes and stared at Lieutenant Kuchiki's back. The more she heard about Lord Kuchiki, the more she came to believe that the man in question could be a reason why Seike remained a butler even though he had the skills to become a high level Shinigami. Why Seike was so loyal to a cold man like him was beyond her.

Because Rukia was pondering on what it would be like for Seike to be working for such a cold master, she didn't realize that Lieutenant Kuchiki turned slightly to their general direction until she felt Renji's hand on the back of her head, forcing her to bow down.

When Renji let go and Rukia managed to look up again, Lieutenant Kuchiki was already nowhere in sight. Thus, she glared side way toward Renji.

"What?" Renji responded. "The guy was looking our way, and in case you missed it, Rukia, he emitted a very fearsome aura."

"Yes, he did," Hinamori found herself agreeing to Renji's comment. "And I used to think that high level Shinigami would be kind and friendly like Aizen-taichō and his lieutenant."

"Actually, most high level Shinigami are scary in their own ways," Kira pointed, "but anyway, Kuchiki-fukutaichō has left, so let's just checkout our books before the library is closed."

With that said, Kira led his friends toward the checkout desk, so Renji and Hinamori followed suit. Meanwhile, Rukia stood her ground and gazed at the double door of the library as if to try to see the man who had just walked past it. There was something about this Lieutenant Kuchiki character that seemed strangely familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time.

"Oi, Rukia, aren't you coming?" Renji turned around and asked.

"Yeah, I'm going," Rukia replied, realizing that she was too busy thinking that she forgot to walk with her friends.

Once again, Rukia had to brush that feeling aside, telling herself that despite how she had delivered goods at the Kuchiki Mansion and even acquainted herself with the family's butler, it was the first time that she got a glimpse of the master of the house. She was convinced that her mind was just playing trick on her when she felt as if she had seen that man somewhere before, so she decided not to pursue the thought any further.

Very little did she knew that if she were to investigate the matter further, she would have been able to unveil all the mysteries that she had been trying to figure out before she would have to get more involved and be pulled into a messed up situation that she could not escape unscathed.


	9. Sins of Omission

A/N: Hello, dear readers. It's been months since my previous update and I'm truly sorry for such a long absence. Lately things had been so hectic that I barely had time to breathe, so naturally fan fiction has to wait. I'm not too sure how many people are still patient enough to stick around for an update, so to everyone who's still reading this, thank you very much. I hope you'd enjoy reading this (long awaited?) chapter, and if it's not too much trouble, please leave a comment or two after you're done reading and let me know what you like or dislike about the story so far. Till next time, hopefully sooner rather than later.

* * *

**Chapter 9: Sins of Omission**

Ever since she started training under Byakuya's guidance, Rukia had become more enthusiastic to attend Zanjutsu class and would always try to get to the class as early as possible.

As on that day her Zanjutsu class was in the first period after lunch break, Rukia finished her lunch quickly so that she could arrive early to the dojo and spend some time practicing her moves just before the class would start.

She had expected that everyone else would still be having lunch so the dojo would be free for her use, thus she was in for a big surprised when she arrived and found that someone was sleeping soundly in one corner of the dojo.

That person was a man who was clad in standard shihakushō. All Rukia could tell from where she stood was that he was a muscular man with short spiky black hair and that he was using a roll of white cloth as a makeshift pillow.

Rukia contemplated whether she should get inside and practice like she had planned to do and hope that she would not disturb that Shinigami or she should just scram since she knew from experience that not all Shinigami could be trusted so it would probably be best to stay away from whoever that man was. Just as Rukia was about to leave, that man was roused by her presence. However, before she could apologize for disturbing him while he was asleep, the man quickly jumped up and put both of his arms over his head as if to guard himself from something.

Rukia didn't know what else to do but staring at that man's strange behavior. Then again, she had heard that there were many strange Shinigami out there.

The man stayed in that position for a few more seconds before he slowly peeked through his guard. He then sighed before he lowered the guard and remarked, "Oh, you're not Rangiku. What a relief!"

Seeing as he had already seen her and it would be rude to leave without saying anything, Rukia quickly bowed down and uttered her apology:

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you."

The man laughed lightly as he stood up and walked to pick up that white cloth that he used as a makeshift pillow

"Actually, I should be the one to apologize since this isn't really a place to be taking a nap to begin with," he said. "You must be here to prepare for your class, right?"

Rukia gasped as she watched the man unrolled the cloth he used as a makeshift pillow and then flicked it to reveal that it was actually a white robe with the Goteijūsantai's symbol, which could only mean that either he was a suicidal thief who had just stole a captain's robe to use as a pillow or he was actually a Goteijūsantai captain.

When the man put on the sleeveless robe over his Shinigami uniform as if it was a common behavior, Rukia came to the conclusion that it had to be the latter case. Thus she paled slightly even though she didn't think she had done anything wrong when all she did was arriving to class early, and the captain shouldn't have been taking his nap in the Shinō Academy in the first place. Then again, she heard the Goteijūsantai's captains were all a strange breed of people, so she might do well to be careful not to get on their bad sides.

"Yes, sir, I am," she replied, adding the word 'sir' just to sound more respectful. Even though he didn't seem to be angry, it was best to be cautious. After all, she didn't want to get into any trouble and who knew what he was actually thinking behind that goofy smile of his? "But there's still half an hour left before the class would start, so I can leave and come back later when it's time."

"No, no, no, you don't have to," he replied. "You should come in and practice like you planned to do. The old man Yamamoto would scold me if he ever found out that not only did I laze off in the middle of the day, but I also disrupted a student's plan to practice zanjutsu, so I'll get going."

The captain said and gave her a toothy grin as he walked up to the doorway where Rukia stood.

Since she expected that he would leave right afterward without bothering to introduce himself, Rukia simply bowed down and waited for him to walk past her out of the dojo. However, instead of going out right away, the man stop on his tract.

When Rukia lifted her head up to see why he had yet to be off, she realized he was staring at her as if he had just seen a ghost.

"Is something wrong, sir?" she asked.

The man furrowed his brows slightly.

"Sorry, but what did you say your name was?" he asked.

"Actually, I haven't introduced myself yet," Rukia said the first thing that came to mind but then she bit her tongue, realizing that she might have just talked back to a Goteijūsantai captain. "Um... I mean, my name is Nanashi Rukia."

The captain blinked.

"Nanashi, huh?"

"I used that name to enroll into the Shinō Academy since I didn't have my own family name," Rukia explained when she saw the question in the man's brown eyes.

"And I thought for sure it'd be Amamiya," he mumbled to himself. "Oh well, I guess people could still look alike even though they're not related."

Rukia's eyes were widened as she heard the captain's remark despite how he mostly talked to himself. If it had been months earlier, she might not have paid any attention to the captain's word, for she wouldn't have been able to care less about who she might or might not look like. However, since Kanzan-dono started giving her financial support, she had been curious as to who the man actually was; and it was the first time that someone who wasn't Kanzan-dono himself mentioned that she looked like someone they knew, so she couldn't help being curious.

The truth was she didn't really expect anyone, much less someone who was at that captain's age, to say that she looked like someone they knew because she believed that the deceased lady she resembled was already of old age when she passed, so the only people who might be able to recognize the resemblance would have to be just as old if not older than said lady. Thus it was a surprise that the captain should make such a remark.

"Anyway, I'm off now," the captain said. "Oh, and if a woman with short strawberry blond hair and huge boobs should drop by to look for me; could you do me a favor and tell her you didn't see me here?"

"Of course, sir," Rukia replied quickly even though she was still not entirely too sure who that captain was or to which division he belonged, but she supposed she would know as soon as he left and she saw the number of the division that was written on the back of the captain's robe. "Have a good day."

And with that the captain was off.

Rukia didn't waste that opportunity to turn around so she could watch him leave. It was then that she caught the kanji of number ten inside the Goteijūsantai symbol on the back of the captain's sleeveless robe. She took a moment to recite the names of all current captains of the Goteijūsantai and realize he was Shiba Isshin of the great noble Shiba family.

"Amamiya, huh?" she found herself repeating the name that Captain Shiba had let slip earlier.

On the one hand, the name might not mean anything and it might be just a coincidence that the captain thought she looked like some random person that he knew, but on the other, it could be the name of a noble family that was related to either Kanzan-dono or his late wife and Captain Shiba happened to know the family well enough to recall what the lady looked like when she was close to Rukia's age.

Rukia sighed softly. Although she had told Renji that she wanted to respect Kanzan-dono's privacy and wouldn't try to find out about him or his late wife until he decided to tell her himself; it gradually became more and more difficult for her to hold back her curiosity.

Still unsure what she should do with the first possible lead to the identity of Kanzan-dono, Rukia sighed once again and told herself that she would think about what to do afterward. She would focus on what was important at that time, and it was her upcoming class.

With that thought, Rukia brought out her bokken and proceeded to her practice.

* * *

It wasn't long until the rest of Rukia's classmates arrived to the dojo. Since no one came to look for the captain, Rukia didn't feel any urge to mention her brief meeting with Captain Shiba to anyone and quietly waited for the teacher to arrive.

The teacher arrived to the dojo just as the academy's bell rang to signal the start of the period. However, instead of carrying a wooden sword to class like he normally did, the teacher had an actual sword tied to his obi sash.

It seemed Rukia wasn't the only student who had noticed the difference, since her classmates also had curious look on their faces. However, all the students still bowed down and greeted their teacher.

"Good afternoon, Hattori-sensei."

The teacher, now known as Hattori, nodded to accept the greeting.

"Good afternoon, class. You may all sit down," he replied. Once he saw that all the students had sat down in a seiza position, he continued, "I think all of you have already noticed that I'm carrying a zanpakutō today."

The students nodded quietly.

"It is as you suspected, from this day onward, I'll be teaching you how to handle an actual zanpakutō."

One of Rukia's classmates raised his hand. Once the teacher nodded his permission he asked, "Does this mean we'll now be given a zanpakutō, sensei?"

Hattori nodded.

"Yes, although technically, it's an asauchi and it will only be lent to you. It will be officially yours only after your graduate from the academy and become a full Shinigami."

Rukia furrowed her brows slightly before she raised her hand.

"Yes, Nanashi-kun?"

"Is this the only way one can obtain a zanpakutō, sensei?" Rukia wondered, recalling how Byakuya told her that he had never been to the Shinō Academy yet he still had a zanpakutō in his possession.

"Officially, yes, since all asauchi were forged by Nimaiya Ōetsu-dono who would only forge them in the same number as the number of students who met the academy's requirement. However, I heard Nimaiya-dono also forged and gave an asauchi to the five great noble houses' newborns as presents. Other than that, one may come to into possession of an asauchi by stealing it from a corpse or inheriting it from the dead."

Rukia furrowed her brows slightly as none of the way to obtain an asauchi seemed to fit the image she had of the Kuchiki butler.

"Why is it that noble people always have privileges when us Rukongai folks have to work hard for everything?" one of Rukia's classmates complained.

"Sadly, there will always be social inequality, but a good thing about the Goteijūsantai is that it doesn't matter if you're a noble or a Rukongai's resident, as long as you have the required skills, you can reach the top position," the teacher remarked calmly. "Anyone who works hard enough can become a captain of a division. In fact, more than half of the current captains are not noble by birth, and most of the lieutenants are from Rukongai. So instead of worrying about noble people's privileges, what you really should focus on is how to bond with your asauchi after it is given to you."

Another student raised his hand, so Hattori nodded his permission for him to speak.

"How are we supposed to bond with our asauchi, sensei?"

"Since each zanpakutō spirit is unique, there is no exact tip or trick for communicating with your sword. All I can recommend is that you spend as much time as you possibly can with it and keep practicing your zanjutsu," Hattori replied, "which we should start from now, so let's not waste any more of your time to bond with your asauchi. Please stand up and follow me to the asauchi room so you can pick up your sword."

Hearing the teacher's words, all the students rose to their feet and then followed Hattori to another room in the dojo. Once they reached to their destination, Hattori opened the door to reveal a room that was filled with sword racks. Each rack held up to eight swords. Most of the asauchi that were on display were in katana size although there were some in different sizes as well.

"Alright everyone, you can go inside and pick one asauchi," Hattori remarked, then seeing how the students were about to rush in, he quickly added, "but before you make your pick, remember that you cannot change your mind afterward so take as much time as you need and be sure to choose well."

Despite their teacher's advice, many students still raced each other for the sword that looked coolest or most beautiful in their eyes.

Rukia, on the other hand, was still unsure where she should start looking, especially when all other students were running around to search for the sword that they like best.

"What's wrong, Nanashi-kun?" Hattori asked when he noticed that Rukia had yet to move from the spot.

"I have no idea how I should pick my asauchi, sensei," she replied in all honesty. "There are too many to choose from."

"Many chose from the type of sword and from the design," Hattori stated, "but the few that go far up the rank chose the one that resonate to them most."

"Resonate, sensei?"

Hattori nodded.

"Do not choose with your eyes, Nanashi-kun, but do choose with your heart."

Although she still didn't quite get it, Rukia doubted there would be any use of standing there doing nothing, so she walked to the nearest rack and carefully examined the asauchi one by one, not paying any heed to her classmates who had already picked the asauchi they liked and then went back out to start training with it.

She continued looking until she saw one asauchi in a standard katana size. Its was sheathed in a pitch black scabbard with crimson handle wrap. The guard was in a rectangular octagon shape with smoke-like pattern embossed on the long side and a curved line carved out on the short sides. While the design was simple and no where near what she could call exquisite, she couldn't take her eyes off of it. Somehow she felt it was the sword she was looking for.

Rukia reached her hand out to pick up the asauchi from its stand before she carefully rub its scabbard.

"Hi. I'm Rukia. Nice to meet you," she whispered to the sword. "I hope you'll speak to me soon."

* * *

Later that evening, on a different part of Seireitei where the Kuchiki Manor was located, the head of that family, Kuchiki Byakuya, was alone in his study, reading on the quarterly consolidated financial report of the Kuchiki family's business group while making some notes on what should be discussed in the next family meeting.

As he was about to turn the page of the report, he could sense the arrival of one of the elders who he least wanted to deal with at the time – Kuchiki Kaede.

Since either closing the open door of the study or flash-stepping out of the window was a rude, if not cowardice, option, Byakuya simply sighed softly and turned the page of his report, waiting for the old man to arrive.

A short moment later, an old man with long gray hair and dark gray eyes who was clad in a plain brown kimono appeared in front of open door of Byakuya's study and greeted.

"Good evening, Byakuya-sama. Do you have a moment to spare?"

Byakuya didn't even bother to lift his gaze from the report when he replied, "As a matter of fact, I don't."

Kaede furrowed his brows.

"You're not even going to ask me why I am here?"

"Lately you seem to only have one agenda whenever you approach me, so what is the point of wasting both of our time when you and I both know that my stand in that matter would not change?"

Kaede sighed softly.

"In that case, I should just inform you that I've spoken to the elders council about your thought on the list of marriage prospects that was proposed to you earlier," he stated. "I didn't use your exact words, of course, but I'm certain that the idea got across."

"And why should that concern me?" Byakuya asked, still not looking up from the report.

"Since you rejected all the ladies that the elders had suggested, they decided to consult professional matchmakers to compile a new list of candidates," Kaede replied. "And I was asked to present that list to you."

With that said, Kaede then walked into the study and presented what appeared to be a large album to Byakuya who couldn't appear more disinterested in it if he tried. Seeing that the head of the family wouldn't even spare the album a glance, Kaede simply put it on Byakuya's desk.

"If you opposed to the idea of having an arranged marriage this much, you should have protested right when the idea was first brought up."

"I do not oppose the idea, but that doesn't mean that I have to be thrilled about it either," Byakuya replied simply as he kept on writing down some notes on the report. "It merely means that I am willing to perform my duty as the head of this family at all costs."

"You sounded as if we're asking you to walk to the gallows and then hang yourself, Byakuya-sama, when in truth, even arranged marriage can work if you give it enough effort."

Byakuya let out a sardonic chuckle; however, he did not say anything. Instead, he simply turned the page of the report and continued reading.

"You do not need to convince me about the benefits that the family may gain from a marriage of convenience between me and one of the women you elders have picked, Kaede," Byakuya noted. "I have already resigned myself to it; and I will not go back on my words. I will look at that list and give you my response in due time."

Kaede took the chance that Byakuya had yet to look at him once since he entered the room to study the younger man.

"Somehow I feel that despite what you have just said, you're stalling this matter."

"And do you expect me to look at the book you brought here and now and then pick some lady at random in order to get you off my back?" Byakuya wondered. "I could do that, of course, but that would be rude to the other party."

Kaede sighed in exasperation.

"I do expect you to choose your future bride carefully," said the old man, "but I feel that you would take time to search for any little fault you could find about each of these women and then reject all of them just like you did last time."

"Well, the elders council once commented that the wife of the head of the Kuchiki family should not be anything less than perfect," Byakuya commented, this time his words were coated with sarcasm; since it was what the elders had said to him when he insisted on marrying his late wife despite her questionable background. "I wonder when the council has changed its opinion."

Despite the fact that he knew the younger man was intentionally riling him, Kaede couldn't help playing into the younger man's hand and glared at Byakuya. Then the next words he blurted out earned him Byakuya's attention for the first time that evening, even though it was not a good kind of attention at all.

"I only hope you're not stalling the matter because of that girl you've been grooming to be Hisana-dono's replacement," he said. "She's Hisana-dono's sister, isn't she? Does she even know why you bother to involve yourself with Rukongai's street rat like her?"

Byakuya looked up to Kaede, and if a look could kill the old man would have already been reduced to dust.

The old man believed he had seen the same kind of fire that he had not seen in six years since the time Byakuya harshly shot down all the elders' objections and insisted that he would wed the woman he loved even if he should be disowned by the Kuchiki family.

Back in that time, the only person who was capable of stopping Byakuya from actually raising hell was the head of the family at the time, Kuchiki Ginrei. However, this time it was impossible for the late Kuchiki Ginrei to play referee between his grandson and the elders council. Thus Kaede couldn't be too certain what the outcome would be.

"You do realize, of course, that you did not only insult her with that remark, but you also insulted me," Byakuya stated icily.

"I can assure you that I have no intention to insult you, Byakuya-sama. However, as your elders, one of my duties is to warn you when I see that you behave improperly," Kaede stated calmly. "Because of that I must suggest that you put an end to whatever kind of relationship you are currently having with that girl before anyone else should ever find out about it. Your intentions toward her may be honest; however, you cannot control how people think or speak. Should it ever come out that you are close to a girl who is a dead ringer to your late wife, it could lead to a huge scandal."

"Do I look like I care about how people talk about me behind my back?"

Kaede shook his head.

"No, but can you say the same about her?" the old man inquired. "Can you say she would not care to be viewed as some nobleman's kept woman? What kind of future would that girl be able to have if people thought all her achievements were the result of her involvement with you?"

Byakuya narrowed his slate eyes dangerously while he tightened his grip on the pencil he had been holding. It was obvious he was angry although it was impossible to tell whether the source of such anger was from Kaede's words or from the fact that he did not have any comeback for them.

The truth was Byakuya had never considered the possibility of a scandal, since he never intended to replace his late wife with anyone, much less with Hisana's very own younger sister. And despite how much those two women looked alike, Rukia was Rukia and Hisana was Hisana, and to Byakuya, they couldn't be more different from one another.

"Well, I guess I have already spoken too much and overstepped my bounds," Keade stated even though he didn't seem to regret his words one bit. "I will just excuse myself then. Have a good evening, Byakuya-sama."

With that, Kaede bowed to the head of the Kuchiki family and retreated from the room before Byakuya gave him the permission to leave.

Once the elderly Kuchiki was gone, Byakuya put down his pencil before he glared maliciously at the album the old man had brought there, tempted to burn it to the ground with kidō fire. However, he simply left it there on the corner of his desk, knowing that anger would not do him any good.

No matter how much he hated to admit, Kaede had a good point about his relationship with Rukia and how it could easily ruin her chance at a decent future should it ever be known by someone with ill intentions. The truth was, if someone really wanted to use her to tarnish his reputation, all they needed to know in order to spread the rumor was the fact that he was close to Rukia. They wouldn't need to know about the resemblance between her and Byakuya's late wife at all.

'So what are you planning to do about it, Byakuya? Simply stop seeing her without any explanation. I'm sure that she would take that very well,' Senbonzakura chimed in. His tone was dripping with sarcasm.

Byakuya took a deep breath and closed his eyes. 'What do you want me to say, Senbonzakura? That I should have listened to you when you told me I should adopt her into the family as my younger sister?"

'No, you and I both know that from the beginning, you've never looked her as a younger sister,' Senbonzakura responded. 'First she was merely a promise you vowed to keep, and who knows what she is to you now. Anyway, at this point, you can either tell her the truth and let her decide whether she'd continue associating with you or you can keep pretending to be Seike until it blows up in your face. I know what I'd do, but the choice is not mine to make, it's yours.'

With that said, Senbonzakura's voice faded as the zanpakutō spirit left Byakuya to contemplate his options.

Once again, Byakuya sighed wearily. While the choice should be obvious, not much in his life was ever so simple and Byakuya wondered if there was no other alternatives, and if so, would he be able to think of one before Saturday arrived.

* * *

When Saturday came, Rukia woke up early as usual in order to prepare lunch boxes for herself and the man she believed to be the Kuchiki family's butler. Like every other Saturday, she went out to the morning market to buy the ingredients required for the meal she planned to cook. The difference, however, was that she spent more time in the market than she normally did, since she wanted to cook something a little more special in order to celebrate the small feat that was her receiving an asauchi.

Rukia admitted it was a little stupid to cook special food for her own celebration, since if it had been any other circumstance, it should have been Byakuya to give her something nice in order to congratulate her for the small milestone that she had achieved. However, since he was one of the main reason why she had improved so much of late, she felt she couldn't ask for anything of him and should be thankful to him instead.

Since she had taken her time to think of the menu and then chose the ingredients she needed, she returned to the Shinō Academy's campus later than she normally had. Thus she decided to take the shortcut back to the dorm, which turned out to be a grave mistake since she was caught by Renji who somehow woke up early to jog around the campus.

"Yo, Rukia. What are you doing up so early?" her red-haired friend greeted just as he ran toward her.

Rukia inwardly groaned, but she showed no sign of irritation when she turned to face the red-haired friend of hers.

"I could ask you the same question, though I guess it's obvious in your case."

Renji shrugged before he replied, "A guy's gotta stay in shape, especially when he's about to have another training camp."

This time, however, Rukia actually groaned.

"Why is it that the students in the advanced class always get to have all the privileges?"

"That's coz we're awesome like that," Renji said with an arrogant smirk. Then as he looked at Rukia, he noticed the one new thing about her appearance, which was that she had an asauchi clad on her obi sash. Thus, he added, "Not that you're not doing good yourself since you've already received your own asauchi and all. How come you never mentioned this to me, by the way?"

"What's the point of telling you that I just received something that was given to you since months ago?" Rukia returned.

She didn't intend to sound bitter about it, since she had learned since a long time ago that it wouldn't do her any good to feel jealous of her friend's accomplishment. After all, it would only widen the distance between she and her lifelong friend.

"The point is we're friends, and I'd like to know about your accomplishment," Renji remarked in a serious tone.

Rukia blinked once at that, since Renji's word made her realize that the distance between she and Renji might have grown much wider than she had expected. In the old day, she would probably have shown her asauchi off to Renji despite the fact that he might have said she was an idiot for getting so excited about it. However, this time, she didn't have a plan to mention it to him at all if he hadn't noticed it himself. Yet just a few moments ago, she was still thinking about how she wanted to show her sword to Byakuya and even thought about preparing special food for the occasion.

"Well, now you do," she replied, feeling somewhat guilty.

Not liking the heavy atmosphere between them, Renji decided to change the subject back to the grocery bags Rukia was holding.

"Anyway, what's with all those bags?"

"These?" Rukia asked, holding the bags up a little. "They're just some ingredients I brought for the new recipe I thought up. I don't know if it'll be any good, though."

"Since when did you take up cooking as a hobby?" Renji wondered.

"Since I got some free time after having quit some of my part-time jobs," she replied. "Anyway, I'll go back to my dorm and start cooking now, so I guess I'll catch you later?"

Renji narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Normally if Rukia were to try doing something new, she wouldn't have waited to use him as her lab rat regardless of what he said. Thus for her not to forcefully tell him to come over and be the taste tester of her food was rather strange.

"What?" Rukia asked once she noticed how Renji was looking at her.

"You aren't gonna force me to come with you and taste whatever it is that you plan to cook?" he asked, "That's weird."

Rukia raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? Are you telling me you want to be my taste tester?" she asked. "I was just going to give you the slip since you were in the middle of your exercise and all, but if you insist..."

"Ha!" Renji exclaimed before he pointed his finger at Rukia. "I'm on to you now, you sly midget. You're gonna make it seem like I offer to be your lab rat on my own accord, aren't you? I'm not falling for that."

Although that wasn't really her plan, since she didn't plan to cook for Renji to taste to begin with, Rukia saw it as an opportunity to get herself out of an unwanted situation in which she might have to use the ingredients she bought to cook for herself and Renji just so he wouldn't suspect anything. Thus, she smirked mischievously as if it had been her plan all along.

"Now, now, why would you even say that?" she asked. "That wasn't my plan at all."

"Of course it is," he accused. "Why else would you have bought so many ingredients?"

Rukia shrugged just before she let out a dramatic sigh.

"Ah, so you caught me. And I thought I'm already subtle enough this time."

Renji narrowed his eyes as he asked, "Since when have you ever been subtle?"

"Anyway, don't mind me, Renji. I'll just go back to my dorm and taste the food myself. It seems you've already had your breakfast anyway."

Renji blinked since he had expected Rukia to force him to go with her even after he realized what her plan was anyway, since it wasn't like her to simply give up when she still had yet to get what she wanted.

"Hey, you're not gonna guilt trip me into tasting your food, are you?"

Rukia rolled her eyes. Sometimes she couldn't really understand why Renji was so hung up on the idea that she was planning something against him, when all she actually wanted to do at that time was returning to the dorm so she could cook in peace.

"Really, Renji, now I'm beginning to think you're a glutton for punishment," she pointed. "And no, I'm not guilt tripping you into anything, so just go back to your jogging or whatever it is that you've been doing. I'll just return to my dorm."

Somehow Renji was still looking at her with his crimson eyes narrowed. It appeared he didn't trust what she had said to him.

"Really, Rukia, you're not going to drag me with you to eat whatever it is that you plan to cook?"

Rukia sighed exasperatedly. She wanted so bad to groan, since it seemed she could never get Renji to act as she wanted. Not that she ever thought of him as anything but a good friend, but sometimes it was irritating how he was hardly ever around when she actually needed him but always hung around her in the time that he was not needed.

"No," Rukia insisted.

"Then why did you buy so many things?" Renji asked, gesturing to the grocery bags that Rukia had been holding in her arms. "No matter how huge your appetite is, I'm sure you bought enough to make a meal for two or even more."

Rukia bit her lower lip once it occurred to her that Renji could be observant when he wanted to be. And since she bought enough ingredients for two lunch boxes, she couldn't say he was wrong in his assumption. She wanted to be able to tell him about her meeting with Byakuya, but she had given her words to Byakuya that their meeting would remain confidential, so all she could do was thinking up a believable lie.

"Because I'm planning to cook and share them with people at my part-time job," Rukia replied with the first thing that came to her mind.

Renji blinked as he came to remember that Rukia still kept her part-time job at that one spice shop despite the fact that the allowance that was given to her by Kanzan-dono was more than enough to cover all of her expenses.

"Ah! This is why you haven't quit that part-time job, isn't it? You have a thing for that co-worker of yours. What's his face?" Renji exclaimed while pointing his finger accusingly at her. Then he laughed. "To think even an unladylike woman like you actually like a guy enough to wake up early in the morning to go shopping for groceries and then cook for him. Ouch!"

Renji yelped as as Rukia suddenly slapped him upside the head.

"Don't you dare say I'm unladylike."

Renji glared back at his friend.

"Well, no lady would slap a guy upside the head just because she didn't like what he said," he returned. Then Renji paused for a second before his eyes became as wide as a saucer. "Wait a sec! You didn't deny liking the guy."

Rukia widened her eyes as she realized that Renji was right and she didn't actually deny liking the person she was cooking for when it should have been the first thing she tried to deny. The thought made her pale slightly.

"No, I don't like Seike-san like that," Rukia said but then she quickly shut her mouth. She wasn't supposed to bring up that name at all when Renji didn't really know anything about him and was just talking about Kei, the man who was once her coworker at the Hana Kōshinryō where she was supposed to still have been working part-time for. "It's just that he's been helping me a lot, so what's wrong with showing him some gratitude?"

Renji furrowed his brows as he gave her a peculiar look. However, Rukia didn't have time to decipher what that look might have meant, since Renji simply shrugged.

"Well, if that's what you insist. Anyway, I won't get in your way, so go back to your dorm and cook to your heart's content," Renji remarked. "Though I hope you don't give the poor guy food poisoning and ruin any chance you might have with him."

With that said, Renji jogged away before Rukia had a chance to kick or slap him for his last remark, leaving Rukia to stand there with a question of what Byakuya might actually mean to her.

* * *

It was strange how Rukia was dragging her feet to the rendezvous point with Byakuya when just a few hours earlier she still couldn't wait to see him and then show him her asauchi. She blamed Renji for having bought some ridiculous, not to mention improper, idea into her head and causing her to feel awkward about the meeting she was about to have with Byakuya.

It was true that Byakuya was a beautiful and attractive man; however, she never allowed herself to actually acknowledge those attributes since he was her mentor, and Rukia had to say that she had done a very good job at it until her idiotic friend accused her of liking him. Though to be honest, Renji didn't actually accuse her of liking Byakuya, since he didn't even know of the man. All he did was accusing her of liking the person she cooked for, and that person just happened to be Byakuya.

"Stupid Renji and his big mouth," she grumbled. "I'm so gonna kill him the next time we meet."

By the time Rukia reached to the training ground, Byakuya was already there. However, instead of finding Byakuya sitting down on the rock, doing the jinzen as he usually did, Rukia spot him in the middle of the field just inside of some sort of barrier with some sort of flower petals floating in the air around him.

Those flower petals were swirling in the air, catching the yellow hue of the morning sun as they did. In the middle of the display stood Byakuya who was gracefully moving around as if he was dancing to a music that only he could hear, and strangely enough the petals were moving in sync with the man's every movement.

Just like the first time she met him there, she could feel heavy spiritual pressure around the area. However, unlike on that fateful day, the spiritual pressure didn't render her completely breathless. Thus she managed to stand and watch him until Byakuya finally turned to her direction and noticed how she had been staring at him.

With a slight gesture of his right hand, all the flower petals that were swirling around him suddenly disappeared into thin air and a few second afterward an unsheathed sword materialized in his hand.

Sheathing the sword in the sheath that was clad to his obi, Byakuya then moved to put down the barrier that he had set around himself just before he turned to Rukia's general direction.

"Good morning, Rukia-kun," he greeted. "You're early."

"Good morning, Seike-san," Rukia replied, feeling somewhat awkward in his presence. "I'll go and put my things down first."

Byakuya watched quietly as Rukia moved away to put her shoulder sack down under the tree. It was then that he noticed that unlike every other time, Rukia was carrying something that looked akin to an actual katana in her hand instead of a wooden bokken she usually brought with her.

"Is that an asauchi?" Byakuya inquired when Rukia was putting her shoulder sack down on the rock.

"Ah, yes, Seike-san, it is!" Rukia responded before she quickly walked back toward him. "I just received it in the zanjutsu class a couple of days ago, and I was meaning to show it off to you."

She was smiling broadly when she presented the sword to Byakuya's with both of her hands to show it off to Byakuya.

There was a pensive look on Byakuya's face when he remarked, "It seems you have progress in a much faster pace than I have anticipated."

"That's a good thing, right?"

"Of course," Byakuya confirmed; however, the look in his eyes told Rukia that he was troubled by something, and the look caused Rukia's smile to falter.

"Is something the matter, Seike-san?" she asked, genuinely concerned.

Byakuya shook his head.

"No. Nothing's wrong," he stated. "Now why don't you show me what you've been doing with that new asauchi of yours, Rukia-kun?"

Rukia furrowed her eyebrows slightly. She was certain that there was something despite what he said to her, but she knew better than to press him. Thus, instead of trying to dig deeper into what might have bothered Byakuya, she opted to do as he suggested she did.

"Alright then, just watch me, Seike-san."


	10. Half Truths

A/N: I'd like to apologize for having disappeared for such a long time. I was having a little bit of writer's block, so it took some time for me to finish each scene, even though I intended to update more quickly. Many thanks to all who have left his/her review. I truly hope you'll enjoy this chapter. Till next time.

* * *

**Chapter 10: Half Truths**

Ichimaru Gin walked down the Fifth Division's corridor to what appeared to be nothing more than a dirty, old storage room to most people. However, to those who was allowed to see past the illusion that was carefully crafted by Aizen, it was a secret passageway to a dark, damp dungeon where Aizen conducted his illegal experiments.

Walking down a small aisle between the cells where all test subjects were kept, Gin could hear some painful screeches coming out of each cells yet the smile on his face did not falter one bit. If anything, the smile was broadened at the thought of the horror that would be on all officials' faces should they ever find out about the cruel and unusual experiments that were conducted there.

Gin did, however, stop in front of one cell to look at the subject that was locked inside. If he hadn't known about all the tests that had been done on the creature inside, Gin wouldn't have been able to tell what the thing was, since didn't look anything like a human soul and yet it didn't quite look like a Hollow either.

"Admiring your handiwork?"

Gin didn't have to turn around to see who uttered those words since that smooth voice could only belong to Aizen Sōsuke himself. Still, he turned around and greeted the man with a feign innocent smile.

"But I don't recall actually doing anything to him other than throwing him in this cell after Kuchiki Byakuya-san turned him in after he caught him attacking civilian."

Aizen raised an eyebrow at that.

"Hmm... weren't you the one who suggested that we should use him to test our new Hollowfication formula?"

"Well, it would be a waste to kill him like Tōsen-san suggested when we could have used him as a lab rat first," Gin explained. "But I get why Tōsen-san was so angry. After all, we could have been in a lot of trouble should Kuchiki-san arrived to the scene a few minutes later and caught him in the act of stealing a piece of a civilian's soul."

The corner of Aizen's mouth curved up slightly at that explanation.

"That would definitely be troublesome," Aizen agreed. "But anyway, speaking of Kuchiki-kun, are you not going to shadow him again today?"

Gin furrowed his brows slightly as he tried to figure out what Aizen had truly wanted to know when he asked him such question. However, instead of trying to guess the captain's motive, Gin opted to simply replied:

"I just don't feel like it today. You see, taichō, the thrill of stalking a prey is that you don't know what they're going to do or where they're going to be next. However, since I know exactly where he's going to be, what he's going to do and who he's going to be with at this time of the day; there's no fun in shadowing him."

Aizen raised an eyebrow at that.

"And I used to think that you liked him and wanted to befriend him since you two are around the same age and level and you seemed to enjoyed talking to him."

"And you hadn't been wrong, Aizen-taichō. I liked Kuchiki-san just as much as a snake likes eating a small rat. Not that he'd be as easy a prey as a rat or that I'm planning to eat him in a literal or figurative sense. Well, not now at least," Gin claimed. "But I still enjoy planning how to end him should the time ever come, though now I'm slightly worried that with his carelessness, he would end up as someone else's prey first."

Aizen shook his head at the explanation.

"You surely have a twisted way of liking someone, Gin, and somehow I'm not sure if I should start being worried for Kuchiki-kun."

Gin's smile broadened at the comment.

"I thought by now you'd have been used to my twisted side already, taichō," he remarked, "But in any case, you can trust that I wouldn't lay my hand on him as long as you still deem him necessary to our plan."

"I would expect as much."

"But, of course," Gin continued, "I cannot say the same for anyone else who might happen to be aware of what Kuchiki-san has been doing every Saturday morning and plan to take advantage of it."

Aizen raised an eyebrow, suddenly wondering what the lieutenant of the Sixth Division could be doing that would make Gin say that he was being careless. "And what exactly has he been doing, Gin?"

"Zanpakutō training, taichō," Gin replied, "at exactly the same place and the same time."

* * *

Meanwhile, in the second district of Rukongai, completely unaware of the fact that for one reason or another he had caught the interest of the one lieutenant he doubted he would ever be able to place his trust on; Byakuya was sparring with Rukia.

While they had sparred before, it was the first time Rukia used a real sword rather than a wooden one that was used for practice. Thus, Rukia showed some signs of hesitation when she struck at Byakuya.

Byakuya, on the other hand, still appeared as calm as always despite all the thoughts that had been bothering him in the past few days. He gracefully parried her strikes while making mental notes on all her sword forms in order to assess just how much improvement she had made since she started taking lessons from him.

As her instructor, he was pleased with the level of progress she had made and wanted to do everything in his power to help her achieve her dream and make sure she realized her true potential. However, as a man who had vowed to protect her at all costs, he couldn't help being worried, knowing that the better her skills got, the more chance she would be exposed to more danger once she became a Shinigami.

Byakuya tried to shake all unnecessary thoughts out of his head as he deflected yet another strike from Rukia. It would appear this girl always inspired him with conflicting feelings ever since the first time they met, and the better he got to know her, the more conflicting those feelings had become.

_'You can't really blame her for that, though,'_ Senbonzakura observed from the back of Byakuya's mind._ 'It was your own choice to complicate things.'_

Ignoring his zanpakutō's words, Byakuya struck back at Rukia at a calculated speed and force to make sure that she would be able to deflect all his attacks. Then he continued to spare with her until he saw that she was already exhausted and needed to rest.

"That should be enough training for today, Rukia-kun," he stated after deflecting yet another attack from Rukia, who, from what he gathered, would not be able to hold her sword up for one more minute, yet still too determined to even ask for a break. "And don't tell me you can still keep going because it's obvious that you're already exhausted."

Since he was right, all Rukia could do in response was giving him a sheepish look.

"I just want to give my best to this training, Seike-san," she explained, "you know, because you've kindly helped with my training even though you didn't really have to, so I'd hate to be a disappointment."

"I'm not that much of a cruel taskmaster, Rukia-kun," Byakuya commented as he sheathed his zanpakutō. "Besides, you've already exceeded my expectation. To be honest, I didn't expect that you would progress this quickly. However, you do and now you even own an asauchi. At this rate, soon I will have nothing left to teach."

Rukia blinked twice at the comment. On the one hand, she was happy to hear his compliment, but on the other, she wasn't sure if such compliment was his polite way of telling her that he no longer wished to help her with her zanjutsu training.

Rukia's heart fell at the possibility. She wouldn't blame him if he truly wished to stop training her nor would she be bold enough to try to change his mind, since he had only agreed to do so out of his kindness and never really gained anything out of that arrangement to begin with.

But despite how she was afraid to hear the answer, she still voiced her question, "Does that mean you wish to stop training me, Seike-san?"

Although he had told himself he needed to stop being directly involved with her before such involvement would cause her any troubles, and that moment might be a good time for him to actually be out of her life; Byakuya couldn't bring himself to say the word when he saw the crestfallen look on Rukia's face.

"That was not what I meant," he replied after a pregnant pause. "What I meant to say was that I can only teach you basic zanjutsu. I cannot teach you much about your zanpakutō."

Rukia furrowed her brows.

"But don't you also own one, Seike-san?" she wondered.

"I do," Byakuya replied. "However, each zanpakutō has its own unique power and characteristic. I can guide you on how to try to conjure and communicate with your zanpakutō's spirit. Once your zanpakutō's spirit speaks to you, there will be nothing more I can teach."

"Does this mean you'll continue to help me with my training until then, Seike-san?" Rukia asked, hopeful.

"Yes, I'll continue to help you for as long as you need me to," Byakuya replied, and while he was still unsure whether it was the wisest decision to make, the way Rukia's face lit up when she heard his response made him feel that he had made the right decision.

"Thank you very much, Seike-san," Rukia said before she bowed to him to show her gratitude. "I'll continue to be in your care, then."

Byakuya's eyes softened slightly as he watched the way Rukia's face bloomed with happiness. It had been such a long time since he could see someone that happy just because of something he did; and he knew he would give anything just to protect that smile.

"Anyway, it's almost noon," she said, looking up to the sky. "Shall we have lunch now? I've prepared a lot of food today."

"Sure, Rukia-kun," Byakuya replied.

Hearing his answer, Rukia flashed him yet another smile before she ran back to where she had placed her bag and brought out the lunch boxes that she had prepared for the two of them.

_'That girl certainly has you wrapped around her slender fingers, Byakuya,'_ Senbonzakura mused from the back of Byakuya's mind.

_'You don't need to tell me that, Senbonzakura. I've already known,'_ Byakuya responded while his eyes still trailed after Rukia. He watched as she animatedly brought out the lunch box that she had prepared and opened the lid of the box to see the food before before she placed the lid back on.

_'You should tell her, you know?'_ Senbonzakura remarked. _'About who you really are, I mean.'_

Byakuya sighed softly and closed his eyes.

_'A name isn't what really identifies who are you as a person. Even though she believes my name is Seike, she knows me as a person far better than most people who know me as Kuchiki Byakuya ever have.'_

_'If it isn't what identifies you as a person, why afraid of letting her know the most fundamental fact about you? Tell her who you really are and see if that changes anything.'_

Again, Byakuya sighed.

_'I will tell her when I'm ready to let her go.'_

Opening his eyes, Byakuya turned his gaze back to Rukia just in time to see her turning toward him and gesturing him to join her for lunch. Thus, Byakuya strode toward her.

Meanwhile in the back of Byakuya's mind, Senbonzakura sighed wearily as he mumbled mostly to himself, _'Then you'll never tell her.'_

* * *

Seeing that Byakuya was approaching her, Rukia picked up the lunch box she had prepared for him and then handed it to him once he was standing right in front of her. The smile on her face faded and morphed into a worried expression as she saw the troubled look on his face.

"You have that look on your face again," she commented, concerned. "Really, Seike-san, are you sure nothing is troubling you?"

Byakuya blinked and subconsciously touched his face, uncertain whether he had let his guard slip around her, or she was just capable of seeing through his mask. But since she could read him somehow and even voiced her concern, he had no choice but to give her some kind of explanation.

"It's just my zanpakutō being his annoying self, as usual."

Rukia furrowed her brows at that. She had always assumed that one had to at least get along well with one's zanpakutō's spirit in order to unlock the zanpakutō's abilities; however, the truth might differ from what she had imagined. After all, she was certain that Byakuya had already achieved shikai, yet the way he spoke of his zanpakutō seemed to imply that his relationship with it might not be so smooth.

"I'm surprised, Seike-san," she commented, tilting her head slightly so she could look at him. "You're one of the most patient person I know, so I never thought that I'd hear you say that someone, much less your own zanpakutō, is annoying."

Byakuya's lips curved up slightly as a hint of a smile.

"I'm not as patient as you think I am, Rukia-kun," he stated, "Besides, Senbonzakura has been living in my head for five decades, so he knows exactly what to do to rile me up."

Rukia blinked twice. She wasn't sure what surprised her more between the nature of the relationship between Byakuya and his zanpakutō or the fact that Byakuya had opted to mention his zanpakutō by name for the first time.

"Somehow that is not like what I imagined a relationship between a wielder and a zanpakutō would be like at all. I mean, doesn't a zanpakutō has to get along well with its wielder before it'd decide to lend its power to the wielder?"

"Theoretically, yes," Byakuya replied. "However, even the best of friends do not always share the same perspectives. They're bound to have disagreement from time to time."

"I see," she said, nodding slightly in a gesture that she understood what he meant. "Does this mean that you consider your zanpakutō your best friend then, Seike-san?"

"Only when he's not being purposefully annoying."

"Surely you did not mean that, Seike-san," she commented lightly. It was difficult for her to believe that he could actually find someone, much less his zanpakutō, annoying; since he always appeared to be calm and composed and never showed much emotion on his face. However, she supposed even the most apathetic person could feel annoyed from time to time, and Byakuya was no exception.

"Oh, I certainly did," Byakuya insisted. However, he kept a straight face while he did, so Rukia couldn't quite tell whether he was serious or joking. "You would find it irritating too, if there's a voice in your head, always nagging about choices that you made or did not make."

"I'm sure he means well," she said, still smiling as she tried to imagine what Byakuya's zanpakutō's spirit might look like. "Or otherwise, he could have just stopped lending you his power instead."

"Do not give him the idea, Rukia-kun."

Rukia laughed at that.

"I'm sure he would be able to think of that one himself even if no one mentioned it, Seike-san," she returned. "But anyway, speaking of zanpakutō, may I ask how one came into your possession? Hattori-sensei said that the only official way to receive an asauchi is as a Shinō Academy's student, but you once told me you did not attend the academy so—"

"I did not steal one from a dead Shinigami if that is what you were wondering," Byakuya cut in before Rukia could finish her thought. Although his face didn't betray any emotion, Rukia could still tell from the tone of his voice that he was not offended by her question. "Ginrei-sama gave it to me when he deemed me old enough to handle a sword."

It was not the first time Byakuya implied that he had quite a good relationship with the former captain of the Sixth Division, Kuchiki Ginrei. However, it was the first time Rukia thought the relationship might run deeper than that of a master and a servant.

"He must have taken a lot of liking to you," she assumed.

"He could have," Byakuya replied, "or it could be because he took pity on me since my mother died giving birth to me, and my father was killed in a mission when I was in my adolescence."

Rukia widened her eyes slightly. "I'm sorry about your parents."

Byakuya accepted Rukia's condolence with a nod.

"Thank you. It was a long time ago, though."

Seeing how Byakuya was truly unaffected by the story he had just told, Rukia sighed softly in relief. She might want to know more about him, but that didn't mean that she wanted to pry into what might be a sensitive subject. However, just as relief was washing over her, another thought suddenly crossed her mind, so she furrowed her brows at that.

"But, Seike-san," she began, "if you were born rather than being sent here as a soul, wouldn't that mean you're a noble?"

Byakuya eyed Rukia for a moment before he replied with a question of his own, "Would it make any difference if I am?"

Rukia's violet eyes were widened in surprise, and for a moment there, she was unsure as to how to answer him.

Seeing that reaction, Byakuya sighed softly. "I suppose that means it would."

"No, Seike-san!" she countered. "It wouldn't make any difference. I still respect you all the same, and perhaps even more because I never expect a noble to willingly involve himself with some kid from Rukongai's slum. Yet you helped me with my training despite the fact that you could get into trouble just by associating yourself with me."

Byakuya looked at Rukia for a moment, and while he never compared her to Hisana, the humbleness in her tone and the genuine concern in her violet eyes reminded him just how much they were alike.

"I am not a saint, Rukia-kun," he said. "I used to be so shallow that I would look down on every person that is in a lower social class until I met a person who turned my world upside down and made me see things from different perspectives."

There was a ghost of smile and a haunting look in Byakuya's eyes as he thought of Hisana and how he had been blind to absurdity of social segregation until he met and fell in love with her.

"She made me a better person, and if it was not for her, then perhaps we would not be having this conversation right now."

Although Byakuya could have just said so to make her see how he was not as good of a man as she pictured him to be, it did not escape her that the look in his eyes and the tone of his voice when he mentioned that certain lady were not what anyone would use when they mentioned an ordinary friend.

"She must be very important to you," Rukia observed, somehow feeling her heart constrict.

"She was," Byakuya said softly with a melancholic look in his eyes. Then he took a deep breath and remarked, "but I feel I've led this conversation far off topic, so I suppose we should return to discussing a zanpakutō?"

Although she was curious who the woman Byakuya had just mentioned was, she knew better than to try to press him for more details. After all, everyone had things they did not wish to talk about, and it was obvious that the woman was a subject Byakuya did not wish to discuss.

"Of course, Seike-san," she replied, smiling as though she did not notice anything unusual. "So can you give me some tricks on how to get my zanpakutō to speak to me?"

* * *

The rest of the lunch time was spent eating and discussing things starting from zanpakutō and then ended with random things Rukia had done in the past week. Rukia would mostly do the talking while Byakuya simply watched her as he listened to her stories.

"...so next week, we'll finally get to go the World of the Living to practice konsō. It'll probably be fun," Rukia mentioned just before she took a bite on the last piece of maki roll in her lunch box.

"It could also be dangerous," Byakuya noted.

Although he knew that they would pick a relatively safe spot in the World of the Living for the training and that things rarely went wrong during such time, there were still chances that unexpected things could happen. While he trusted that with her current skill set, Rukia would be able to fend off a hollow or two, he still found it difficult not to worry.

"It could be," Rukia agreed since she still remembered Renji's story of how his class was attacked by several huge Hollows while they went to train in the World of the Living. "But it won't be any more dangerous than a mission I will have to take when I become a Shinigami. Besides, it's just a konsō training anyway, so I doubt it will be all that dangerous."

Byakuya nodded in agreement.

"You're right," he said. "Perhaps I am overly concerned."

Rukia widened her eyes in surprise. While she expected that he would be somewhat concerned for her safety due to the fact that she had been under his guidance, she never thought that he would actually admit that aloud, since it was rare for him to show his more sentimental side.

"Even so, I shouldn't have allowed my bad habit of always expecting the worst to spoil your excitement about this training trip," Byakuya added.

"That's alright, Seike-san. It's not like you really spoiled anything. Besides, I'm glad to hear that you're concerned."

Byakuya raised an eyebrow at that.

"You spoke as if you do not expect that I would be."

"It's not that I don't expect you to," Rukia quickly denied, then she bit her lower lip and blushed slightly as somehow that didn't really come out right. Somehow her words made it sounded as if she was hoping for him to be concerned. "Well... I mean... you know..."

Byakuya watched Rukia's sheepish expression with an indecipherable look in his slate eyes before he remarked, "I know."

Realizing that somehow she had become a little too conscious of him, Rukia anxiously fiddling with the chopsticks in her hand while trying to think of the best way to change the subject, since she couldn't really come up with a way to continue with the one they were having without it being awkward somehow.

"Have you been to the World of the Living, Seike-san?" she blurted out the first thing that crossed her mind at that moment.

"I can't say that I haven't."

"Eh? You have?" she asked, surprised. "What is it like?"

"Weren't you supposed to have lived there before?" he responded with a question.

Although he knew very well that Rukia wouldn't have had any memories of her time as a human, since she had passed on to Soul Society when she was just an infant; Byakuya decided to question her anyway so he could keep up the facade that he had not known more than what she had already told him.

"I don't have any memories of my time as a human at all, since I was an infant when my soul was sent to Inuzuri, or at least that was what Mama-san told me," she replied.

"Mama-san?" Byakuya repeated, somehow feeling that he might not like what he would hear next.

"She ran a bar in Inuzuri, so everyone called her that," she explained, not noticing the relief that flashed behind Byakuya's eyes once he heard her explanation. "She picked me off the street and raised me up because her motto was that women should look out for each other in that godforsaken town."

"So she was the one who named you?"

Rukia nodded.

"She also taught me how to read and write as well as how to behave in ladylike manners," she added. "She was kind to me even though raising me up made it more difficult for her to make ends meet."

"Is she still around?"

Rukia shook her head. There was a sad look in her violet eyes as she remarked, "Mama-san was killed when the bar went up in flame one night."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

Rukia accepted Byakuya's condolence with a smile.

"Losing her was difficult, to say the least," she admitted, "but Mama-san always said that all the things that happened in our lives, even if they were tragedies, happened for a good reason. We just had to find what that reason is," she said. "I couldn't find any good out of that incident at the time, but afterward, I realize it made me a stronger person and taught me how to depend on myself."

It was then that Byakuya understood why despite her background, Rukia managed to grow up into a strong, independent woman who always maintained positive attitudes. And perhaps he could learn something from her and try to find the brighter side of things no matter how hard it was to find and try to put the pieces of his heart back together.

"She would be proud to know that you've taken her words to heart."

"I hope she would."

With a small smile, Rukia shook the sad thoughts out of her mind.

"But enough of my sob story," she said before she steered the conversation back to her previous question, "You still haven't answered my question, Seike-san. What is it like in the World of the Living?"

Byakuya blinked once at the sudden change of subject. Then he took a moment to think about the latest mission that required him to visit the World of the Living and what he saw while he was there.

"People there wore peculiar clothes and they had strange manner of speaking. Their architectural style was also different from ours," he replied. "It's been a long time since my last visit, however, so things may not be that way now."

"What were you doing there, by the way?" she asked, truly curious.

Byakuya couldn't reply right away. Even though he considered himself to have been a good liar of late, he couldn't find one credible reason why a butler of the Kuchiki family needed to go to the World of Living.

"I was sent there to pick up some books for waka-sama," he replied, using none other than himself as an excuse as strange as that reason would be. "He had taken interest in that world's literature back at the time."

"Ah," Rukia exclaimed. "So your master is a bookworm. I guess that explains why he went to the Central Library the other day."

"So you've met waka-sama?"

Rukia quickly shook her head in response.

"Catching a glimpse of him is more like it," she noted. "I mean, I only saw him from afar when he was checking out some books at the counter. I didn't even catch a good look at his face, and to be honest, I wouldn't have recognized who he was at all if my friend hadn't mentioned that he was the lieutenant of the Sixth Division."

"His ego would probably be bruised if he knew there was a person who couldn't recognize him by glance," Byakuya remarked with an amused look in his eyes.

"Why would someone's ego be bruised by something like that?" she wondered. "Unless, of course, your master is an attention seeker, which would explain the weird hair clip and the fact that he donned a scarf in the middle of summer."

If it had been anyone else who uttered that sentence, they would have already been reduced to dust by Senbonzakura's thousand blades. However, since those words came from Rukia, Byakuya found himself genuinely laughing at that suggestion.

Rukia furrowed her brows in confusion, as she looked at Byakuya.

"What was so funny, Seike-san?"

It took another moment before Byakuya could hold his laughter back enough for him to speak.

"I was laughing because you could be right, Rukia-kun," he said. "Waka-sama could as well be an attention seeker or he wouldn't have kept wearing the kenseikan or the Kuchiki heirloom scarf in order to make sure that everyone would know who he was."

"I didn't mean to say that he was, though," she protested, furrowing her brows.

"I know," Byakuya said, "and that is exactly why I find it funny even though I really shouldn't be laughing at this at all."

With that said, Byakuya put his straight face back on, which somehow caused Rukia to laugh.

"Let's keep this a secret between us," she suggested. "After all, what your master doesn't know couldn't hurt him, right?"

"You're right," Byakuya agreed. A trace of amusement could still be seen in his eyes. "Besides I don't think it would be wise for me to tell him that someone I met thought he was an attention seeker to begin with."

Rukia smiled at that.

"Do you get along well with him, Seike-san?" she wondered. "I mean, you never really talked about him before. If you would mention anyone, it would only be the previous head, Kuchiki Ginrei-taichō."

"Let's just say my relationship with waka-sama is complicated," he replied, strangely honest, "I suppose you can say that's why I don't have much to talk about him."

"I see."

"He's not an interesting person anyway."

Silence fell between them for a moment. While she could let their conversation ended there since they both had already finished their lunch by that time; Rukia still searched any new topic that would keep the conversation going. However, before she could come up with one, Byakuya beat her too it.

"Anyway, thank you for the meal, Rukia-kun. It was delicious as usual," he commented as he closed the lid of the lunch box that was already empty.

Rukia blushed slightly at the compliment.

"You're welcome, Seike-san. I'm glad the food is to your liking."

"I don't think I've asked you where you learned how to cook."

"I learned it from the chef at the restaurant I used to to work part time," she replied. "Anyway, now that you've finished eating, shall I take the lunch box away?"

Byakuya nodded and handed his lunch box back to Rukia who accepted it and then rose to her feet to put their used lunch boxes back into her shoulder sack to be cleaned later when she returned to her dorm.

Also rising to his feet, Byakuya waited for Rukia to finish her task. Usually, they would say their farewell right afterward, and then Rukia would take her leave while Byakuya would stayed there for another moment before he returned to Seireitei.

Having packed up everything, Rukia approached Byakuya before she gave him a deep bow.

"Well, thank you very much for today's lesson, Seike-san."

"You're welcome," he replied, giving her a small nod of his head as a response.

"I've already taken enough of your time for one day, so I guess it's time to say goodbye for today."

With that said, she gave him yet another bow, though that time was to express her farewell instead of her gratitude.

"Actually, Rukia-kun, before you go, I've got something for you."

Since she didn't expect that Byakuya would bring her anything, Rukia furrowed her brows in confusion.

Pulling a small pouch out of the fold of his kimono, Byakuya remarked, "Consider it my congratulation gift for your recent accomplishment in the academy."

Although she was curious as to what he wanted to give her, Rukia still found herself refusing the gift.

"But you don't need to give me anything, Seike-san. After all, if it hadn't been for your guidance, I wouldn't have made this much progress in the academy to begin with," she said. "In fact, I should be the one who give you a gift of gratitude."

Byakuya looked into Rukia's eyes for a moment, and he realized she wasn't saying so out of a common courtesy, but she actually felt everything she had said.

"Even if you feel that way, I'd still like to congratulate you; so I insist that you accept it," he said.

"Well..." she said, still somewhat hesitated.

"It's just a small gift inexpensive gift anyway," he added. "You'd make me feel bad if you refuse to accept it."

"In that case, I will accept it. Thank you very much, Seike-san," she replied before she reached out to take that pouch. And while it might be considered rude to open a gift right when it was given, Rukia really couldn't hold her curiosity, thus she decided to ask, "May I open it now?"

"Go ahead," Byakuya replied.

Having been given a green light, Rukia quickly opened the pouch to reveal a jade rabbit charm which was tied with a red string.

"Wah, so cute!" she exclaimed in the first moment she laid eyes on it. "Is this some kind of good luck charm?"

"According to the salesman, yes," Byakuya replied. "Do you like it?"

"Of course I like it, Seike-san," she replied. "Thank you very much. I'll treasure it."

Byakuya acknowledged her words with a nod. It lightened his heart when he saw how much she seemed to like his present.

"I'm glad you like it," he said. "Anyway, I've stalled you for long enough, so you may head back now, Rukia-kun."

Rukia flashed him yet another smile before she gave him another deep bow.

"Well, then, have a good day, Seike-san," she said. "I'll see you again next week."

Byakuya nodded.

"I'll see you then, Rukia-kun."


	11. The Load We Bear

A/N: I'm sorry for having disappeared for almost a year. m(._.)m Some stuff went down in real life, and it somewhat affected my creativity (and frankly, I suck at time management.) Since some of you might be concerned whether the story will forever be left in hiatus, I'll just say that I intend to complete every story that I published whether the story is popular or not. (If I didn't die first, that is.) If you're reading this, thank you for still remembering this story. Some reviews would be nice, but at this point, I'd be happy to have a few hits on the new chapter. Till next time, hopefully soon.

* * *

**Chapter 11: The Load We Bear**

"Let's see...you won't be hungry again, unless, of course, you happen to have some spiritual power, then you'll feel hungry and need food to sustain yourself. Besides, Soul Society is peaceful, well, for the most part, except you're really out of luck and get sent to—"

Rukia would have continued to tell the male spirit in front of her about what Soul Society was in order to try to convince him to accept the konsō from her; however, she was interrupted when someone tapped her right shoulder.

"Umm... Nanashi, even if what you said is true, I don't think you're supposed to tell him that. You're only adding anxiety to the Plus's already agitated state."

Rukia turned to her right and saw that the person who had interrupted her was none other than her teammate in that konsō training trip, Yamazaki Yoshihiro. Although Yamazaki was the one who mentioned it first, it seemed he wasn't the only one who was concerned by what Rukia had just told the Plus, since their other teammate, Okuda Akane, seemed to share that same expression with him when she backed him up.

"Yes, Nanashi-san," Okuda said in a whisper. "If I recall correctly, you are from Rukongai, which means you were a human once, right? Back at the time, would you willingly accept the konsō if the Shinigami who sent you had told you exactly what it could be like in Rukongai?"

Rukia blinked twice. She would admit her teammates were right but it wasn't as if she knew how else to answer that spirit's question regarding where he would be sent to after her received the Soul Burial.

"I wouldn't know," Rukia responded, "I couldn't remember my time as a human. Even if I do, wouldn't honesty still be the best policy?"

"Yeah, if you want all the Pluses to try to run away," Yamazaki noted, "which your Plus is trying to do just now."

Rukia groaned in annoyance as she noticed how the spirit she was conversing with earlier was slowing taking a step back away from her, hoping that he would be able to sneak away when she was paying attention to her teammates.

"Oh, no, you don't," Rukia said darkly as she quickly caught up with the Plus. "You're gonna be sent to Soul Society whether you like it or not."

"But I don't want to go," the Plus protested. "It didn't sound like a good place."

"Well, guess what? Nobody cares for your opinion. The dead are not allowed to stay in the World of the Living and that's the end of the story, so off you go."

Without any further ado, Rukia swiftly tapped the hilt of her asauchi to his forehead. The Plus shrieked in fear as a circular portal suddenly opened up behind him, but the shriek soon went silent as the Plus disappeared and all that remained was one hell butterfly.

With the spirit finally gone, Rukia sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. She had intended to persuade that Plus to crossover to Soul Society and keep the konsō process as painless as possible; however, it didn't seem to go well with her personality. She supposed she should commend herself for not slapping that soul upside the head or kicking him in the rear, since that was how she normally responded to those who had annoyed her.

"I should have said nothing and just given him the konsō from the start," she muttered to herself. "Why even bother to persuade them to crossover when they don't have a real say in this matter anyway?"

Taking a deep breath, Rukia did her best to replace her dark expression with an upbeat mask before she turned around to give her teammates a sweet smile that didn't seem all too genuine.

"Alright then, shall we continue to look for more spirits to practice on, Yamasaki-san, Okuda-san?"

Yamazaki and Okuda looked at one another for a moment. Yamazaki then shrugged while Okuda turned to give Rukia a smile before both of them walked over to her.

"Of course, Nanashi-san," Okuda replied.

As the three of them walked silently together, looking for more souls to give Soul Burial to, Okuda decided to break the silence.

"I have to say being teamed with you in this training today makes me realize that you're nothing like how I always imagined you to be, Nanashi-san."

Rukia raised an eyebrow at that. "And how exactly do you think that I would be like?"

"Graceful, reserved and ladylike?" Okuda offered. "You know, the kind that make people feel they were not worthy enough to be in your presence."

"Graceful, reserved and ladylike? Me?" Rukia repeated, incredulous. The qualities that Okuda had previously named didn't fit her descriptions at all. "You've given me too much credit, Okuda-san."

"I was being honest though," Okuda insisted. "You see, I was afraid to start a conversation with you, since I thought that even if you were not a noble here in Soul Society, you might have had high status back when you were alive, so you might not want to associate with ordinary people like me, and I guess many of our classmates share my sentiment. But I guess I was wrong. You also have an awkward and clumsy side like the rest of us."

Rukia furrowed her brows slightly. It had never occurred to her that someone might have viewed her in that way, since she usually thought that most of her classmates, even the one who were from Rukongai themselves, were looking down on her as she came from one of the worst districts in Rukongai and didn't even have a real last name.

"But I'm not saying that your personality is bad or anything, Nanashi-san," Okuda quickly added as she saw Rukia's expression. "The truth is it's my own fault that I just assumed things and went with my assumption instead of trying to get to know you first."

Rukia gave Okuda a smile to let her know that she didn't really mind it.

"No, it's not your fault, Okuda-san," Rukia remarked. "Actually, it was my own fault for not opening up or trying to approach people to make new friends myself."

Okuda let out a sheepish laugh.

"I guess we are both at fault then," she concluded. "But let's put it behind us. It's still not too late to get to know more about each other now."

Rukia nodded. "I suppose you're right."

"Of course, I am," Okuda said triumphantly. "So let's be good friends from now on, Nanashi-san. In fact, if you don't have any other arrangement today, how about we go and have dinner together after the training is over?"

Rukia widened her eyes in surprise, as she didn't expect that anyone would come to suggest that they should be friends and start to hang out together out of the blue. In fact, if she came to think about it more carefully, no one had approached and made friends with her for the sole reason that they wanted to be her friends. The handful of people who she had counted as friends came to be her friends because they were grateful that she helped them escape from the person who chased after them. While those friends had become the closest thing she had to a family, Rukia doubted she would have been friends with them should they meet on a different circumstance.

However, she was glad that Okuda suggested that they become friends. After all, she could use more friends, especially ones that she didn't know through Renji, since she couldn't keep having her life revolving around him. Therefore, Rukia responded with a genuine smile.

"Sure, Okuda-san, I'd love to have dinner with you."

"Great!" Okuda said enthusiastically. "I know a good place just close to the dorm."

As the girls were happily chatting away, Yamazaki rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"If you two are done with girls bonding moment, can we focus more on finding another soul to give konsō to?" he asked. Then he added under his breath, "Seriously, why do I have to be teamed up with two girls when there are many men in this class?"

"Eh, you don't have to be jealous just because you were momentarily left out, Yamazaki-kun," Okuda said chirpily. "You can be friend with us and join us for dinner too. Right, Nanashi-san?"

"Right," Rukia eagerly nodded.

"Thanks, but no thanks. You girls have already given me enough headache for one day," Yamazaki complained. "Do whatever you like. I'm just gonna go on ahead."

He then proceeded to ignore them as he went ahead to look for a soul that he could perform Soul Burial on.

"Don't mind him, Nanashi-san," Okuda whispered. "Yamazaki-kun might act like that but he's actually a nice guy."

Rukia had a thoughtful look on her face. "I take it he's a serious type."

"You can put it that way, but if you ask me, I'd say he's more of a tsun."

"A tsun?"

"You know, a type that—"

Okuda didn't have a chance to finish the rest of the explanation, as her sentence was interrupted by the subject of that conversation himself who turned over his shoulder and called them:

"Oi, Okuda, Nanashi! I've found another spirit over there, so let's go. You can save your girls bonding for later."

"Alright, Yamazaki-kun, we're coming!"

With that, Okuda hurried over to where Yamazaki was while Rukia followed slightly behind.

As she followed her teammates to where that spirit was supposed to be, Rukia couldn't help wondering if they had wandered off too far from the rest of the group, as their surroundings seemed to have changed from a residential area to some kind of urban park with many huge trees. While she would be glad to explore the World of the Living a little more, she still didn't feel too good about heading off too far from the rest of the class, especially when their seniors had instructed that them to remain close the rest of the group.

"There, that's the Plus I was talking about," Yamazaki said before he ran off after that Plus.

The Plus appeared to be a spirit of a young girl with short black hair. She was wearing a pale pink cape with black collar. Although the girl looked relatively harmless, Rukia still felt that something was off about her. There was something strange about her presence that Rukia couldn't quite put a name on. It just seemed different from other Pluses that they encountered that day, and the fact that said spirit had led them to a rather secluded area didn't make Rukia feel any better about the situation.

Because of that thought, Rukia stopped moving to take a more careful look at that spirit. She then realized that while that girl felt like she was a Plus, she didn't have the Chain of Fate that all the Pluses had. More importantly, there was a suspicious shadow with ominous presence that stayed behind the dense trees close to where that girl was standing.

"Wait, Yamazaki-san! She's not—"

Rukia didn't manage to utter the whole warning, as the suspicious shadow that Rukia spotted from earlier suddenly came out of the dark to reveal a large Hollow with green bushy fur and bird-like hands and feet. The girl spirit from earlier turned out to be some kind of lure that grew out of a tentacle on the Hollow's forehead. Said Hollow didn't give Yamazaki any time to react as it suddenly impaled him in the stomach with its bird-like hand, making him cough off some blood. The Hollow then threw Yamazaki to the ground.

Okuda screamed at the sight. She was visibly shaken and she remained frozen stiff on the spot even as the Hollow turned its attention to her and aimed for her next.

"Run, Okuda-san!" Rukia yelled, hoping that by doing so Okuda would be able to get enough grip to get away before the Hollow got her down too. However, Okuda didn't seem to budge. Seeing so, Rukia cursed under her breath before she shouted, "Hadō number 4, Byakurai!"

Lightning was fired from Rukia's fingers towards the Hollow. Although it was merely a low-level spell that might not be able to do much damage, it was the one spell that Rukia was certain that she could use in emergency without any misfire.

The lightning hit the Hollow straight in its body. However, it didn't seem to do any damage to the Hollow at all. In fact, the Hollow looked totally unfazed by it and even laughed at Rukia's futile attempt.

"You won't be able to hurt me with such a weak attack, girl. You could either run away or join your friends as my dinner."

With that, the Hollow slapped Okuda out of the way, sending the girl flying to the side with blood splattering from where she was hit. Then it moved toward Rukia's direction in order to deal with her next.

"Hadō number 33, Sōkatsui!"

Rukia shot a wave of blue energy out of her palm, hoping that it would be at least inflicted some kind of damage to that Hollow. However, after the smoke was clear, all the spell managed to do was some minor scratches that only served to anger that Hollow.

Rukia briefly recalled a conversation she once had with Byakuya about how her enemy would not go easy on her because she was a novice, and she came to realize just how true that was. There was no way she could win against that Hollow if she couldn't even draw a single blood from it after having used the skill that she was most confident with.

Every instinct told her to run while she still could and save herself. However, doing so would go against everything she had been taught in the Academy and would take away her pride as someone who aspired to become a Shinigami. If she ran, she might have a chance to survive; but how could she face herself if she left her friends behind to die by the hands of that Hollow without trying to prevent it?

With a resolve, Rukia took a deep breath before she unsheathed her sword and braced for the Hollow's next attack.

* * *

Blood dripped to the ground as flesh was cut by broken glass. Although he didn't consider himself clumsy, Byakuya had to admit that he had been very absentminded that not only had he knocked the glass vase off its place on his late wife's shrine but he had also cut himself while trying to clean up the mess.

Just as he placed the broken glass back down on the floor was about to apply healing kidō to the cut on his finger, the door to the room was suddenly slid open.

Byakuya turned to the door with his eyes narrowed. It was an unspoken rule in the Kuchiki household that one simply did not disturb the master of the house when he was paying respect to his late wife unless there was a pressing matter that required his immediate attention, but even then, the person who went there to get him would know better than to just barge in without waiting for his permission first.

Although Byakuya had seen her face a few times before as she was one of the household staff, he didn't really know her by name. The maid paled visibly as she realized that the room was occupied by the head of the family himself. She dropped to her knees and gave him deep apologetic bow.

"M-my apology, danna-sama," she stuttered. "I heard something break so I—"

"Leave," Byakuya curtly cut her off.

The girl's sweat dropped at Byakuya's cold tone. She didn't dare to utter any other words as she gave her master yet another deep bowed before she scurried away, closing the door behind her.

Once the maid was gone, Byakuya closed his eyes and sighed. When he opened his eyes again, he turned to look at the photo of his late wife for a moment before he turned his attention back to the shattered vase.

"I know you don't like it when I do things that might intimidate the helps, Hisana," he said softly as he continued picking up the pieces of the vase, "you were always kind to them that sometimes I wondered if you cared for them more than you did me."

Having picked up all the pieces of the broken vase, Byakuya rose to his feet then walked to the corner of the room where a small bin was placed.

"Not that I could blame you if you did," he continued as he trashed the pieces of the vase into the bin. "After all, I was such a failure of a husband."

With that said, Byakuya sighed once again before he walked back to stand in front of the shrine where the portrait of his late wife was set. He took a long look at Hisana's picture and wondered if she had always looked that sad or it was merely his own imagination.

"I'd promised you many things when I asked you to be my wife," he mused, thinking back to the day he proposed to her.

He could still remember how beautiful she looked in that lovely coral pink kimono, the way disbelief reflected behind her eyes the moment she heard his proposal and how hesitation showed in her voice when she eventually accepted. Even then, he had known she did not love him in the same way that he did her. It would have been stupid of him not to notice, yet he chose to ignore it and hold on to the hope that with enough time she would grow to love him. Alas, time was not the luxury that they had.

"I'd promised a better life, a cure to your illness and a reunion with your sister, all of which I failed to keep, but you never complained or showed your disappointment. Instead, you just smiled and told me not to worry. You hid all your worries and concerns no matter how much I wanted you to share them with me the way I shared mine with you. Maybe I hadn't tried hard enough to make you open up to me, or maybe I just wasn't good enough to be entrusted with your troubles, I guess I'd never know."

Byakuya looked at Hisana's photo for a long time as if doing so would give him some kind of answer.

"I think the only trouble you ever shared with me was about your sister," he recalled, "but then that's too big of an issue to hide, especially when you spent all the free time you had searching for her."

Looking away from his late wife's picture, he absently watched how the smoke from the burning incense swirled in the air.

"I used to resent your sister's existence," he confessed. "There were times when I wished she never existed because if she didn't, you wouldn't have had to keep looking for her and worsen your health while doing so and I wouldn't have had to feel helpless when I couldn't do anything to ease your sorrow. Even when you asked me to continue searching for her and then protect her like she was my own sister, I didn't think I could ever view her as anything other than a promise that I'd made."

Byakuya sighed softly.

"Now I wish I could hold on to that resentment and see Rukia-kun simply as another promise."

Byakuya cast his eyes downward to the wooden floor. When he entered the room, his intention was merely to replace flowers in the shrine's vases and then pay some respect to his late wife like he normally did. He didn't intend to say anything about what had been bothering him, since it wasn't as if anyone was actually there to listen to him. However, now that he had started, words seemed to flow out before he could stop them.

"To be completely honest with you, I didn't intend to actually care about your sister," he continued. "My initial plan was to find her and adopted her into the family regardless of the consequences. I didn't plan to care whether she would be accepted by rest of the family nor did I plan to care if the rest of the world would see her as a new pet being adopted into a noble house by a noble lord. I didn't intend to care about what she hoped to accomplish in her life. I didn't intend to care how she might look at me or feel about my actions as long as I could keep her safe. The truth, Hisana, is that I never intended to get to know her at all. I always told myself that all I needed to know about your sister was that she was someone I had to protect at all costs – nothing more, nothing less.

"But somehow without actually meaning to, I got to know Rukia-kun as a person, and the better I knew her, the less I could view her as just a promise I had to keep. Now I don't want to just make sure that she had a good quality of life and that she was protected from any physical harm. I want to protect her spirit, her dreams and her smiles as well, but how can I protect them when I kept doing her wrong?"

Guilt and regret flashed behind Byakuya's eyes as he continued:

"The only thing I believe I've done right by her was choosing not to adopt her into the family. I could tell she would suffer the same fate as yours once she entered the house, or perhaps it would be worse for her, since you never hoped to be accepted or welcomed here while she always dreamed to have a family she could call her own. Other than that one choice, it was one bad decision after another, and it could lead to a total disaster if I am not careful enough."

Byakuya cast his slate eyes back to Hisana's photo. Although not much was revealed in his expression, there was a mix of loss and distraught in his eyes.

"What do I do now, Hisana?" he wondered. "Do I tell her who I am and why I got involved with her in the first place? Would she be hurt? Would she be angry? Or would she not really care?"

Byakuya lifted his hand up to touch the frame of his late wife's picture and then he sighed. Whatever he planned to say to her after that was interrupted when he felt something vibrate near his chest.

Narrowing his eyes in annoyance, he released his hand from the photo so he could dig into the fold of his kimono to pull out what appeared to be a flip phone.

Flipping the phone open, he glanced over the message on the screened. His slate eyes widened slightly after he read the message. Then he closed his eyes for a brief moment as if to focus on something.

Concern was evident on his face when he opened his eyes and rushed out of the room without bidding farewell to his late wife much less closing the doors to her shrine or to the room itself.

* * *

Rukia skidded across the ground and crashed into a huge tree after the Hollow hit her right in the midsection with what appeared to be its fur. Although she was bruising and bleeding all over, she ignored the pain and tried to pick herself back up so she could continue with her battle.

Before Rukia could get up, the Hollow already appeared above her and aimed to crush her skull with its large hand. However, before the hit landed, Rukia managed to use her sword to block it.

She gritted her teeth. Her whole body was shaken as she used all her might to push back against the Hollow. However, the Hollow didn't seem to budge as it was much larger to her in size, and even though her blade made a direct contact with the Hollow's skin, it didn't cut through at all.

"Give it up already," said the Hollow. "There's no way you can get away now."

Rukia knew the Hollow was right. There was no way for her to escape then with her being on the ground with her back against a tree and the Hollow crouching over her, blocking all escape routes. However, at that point, she was only hoping that she would be able to hold it off until some back up arrived. After all, despite her group having strayed off far from training trip, she was sure that at least one of the students and their seniors who went to the training trip would have noticed the kidō she had fired by then.

"I could still try."

Seeing how Rukia's determination didn't falter, the Hollow narrowed its eyes in annoyance.

"I was gonna give you an easy death, but since you've annoyed me this much, I change my mind. I'm gonna make your death slow and painful."

With that, the Hollow extended long sharp claws out of its fingers, aiming for Rukia's head.

Rukia's widened her eyes in surprise and quickly turned her head to dodge those claws. One of the claws barely missed her eyes, but it still left a deep long cut on her forehead.

Although it could easily deliver a finishing blow with its free hand, since Rukia wouldn't be able to dodge again in the position she was in; the Hollow chose not to do so. Instead, it chose to play with her and retraced his claws before it extended them again, aiming for a different spot this time.

As those sharp claws were closing in on her, Rukia closed her eyes and held her breath as she waited for the inevitable. If she had to die there that night, she would not give that Hollow the pleasure of seeing her afraid or hearing her beg for her life.

Before those claws hit, a big wave of blue energy went flying toward the Hollow and hit it right on the side.

Rukia felt thick liquid splashed on her face as the heavy pressure that was pressing down on her sword suddenly lift as the Hollow groaned in pain and then fled to the opposite direction to where it was hit.

Swallowing down her pain, Rukia tried to get back on her feet. As she was pushing herself up, a figure flashed past her toward where the Hollow had escaped. Then a few seconds later, a soft hand pressed her back down by her shoulder.

"You can fall back now, kid."

Rukia looked over her shoulder and saw a busty woman with short strawberry blonde hair and pale blue eyes. The woman was wearing a standard shihakushō together with pink scarf tied around her neck. Although Rukia didn't know the woman's name, she could tell from the armband she was wearing that the woman was the lieutenant of the Tenth Division.

"Taichō has already gone after Grand Fisher," the lieutenant added as soon as she saw hesitation in Rukia's eyes. "You don't have to worry about that Hollow now."

Although she had hoped for a backup, when the backup actually arrived, Rukia somehow felt the lack of closure instead of being washed over by relief. She felt as if she still needed to do something even though she knew she would only be in the way with her current condition. With a sigh, Rukia stayed on the ground.

Just the rush of the battle was gone, Rukia's mind traveled back to the conditions of her teammates. She believed Okuda was still alive, since that one slap from Grand Fisher did not seem fatal. Yamazaki, on the other hand, seemed to have been left in a far worse situation. The last Rukia saw of him, he was lying still in the pool of his own blood, and since the lieutenant was trying to stop Rukia's bleeding instead of helping Yamazaki, Rukia doubted he had survived his injury. Even so, she still found it necessary to ask:

"How are my friends, ma'am?"

"You can call me Rangiku-san," said the lieutenant. "Your female friend was in shock the last I saw her, but she will survive. I've already asked other students to take her back with them."

"What about Yamazaki-san? Is he—?"

"I'm sorry." Even though Rangiku didn't say it right out, her condolence was enough to confirm what Rukia feared.

Rukia closed her eyes, wondering if there was anything she could have done differently that might have enabled her to save the man.

Seeing the look on Rukia's face, the lieutenant pointed, "That Hollow you fought is Grand Fisher. It's killed a number of Shinigami and been on the Goteijūsantai most wanted list for a couple of years now. There's no need to beat yourself up about it. Now relax, I'll take a look at that cut on your forehead."

With that said, the lieutenant used the sleeve of her kimono to wipe the blood off Rukia's face so that she could see just how deep the cut was. Then she proceeded to use healing kidō on the wound.

"Oh, I didn't know you could actually use kaidō, Rangiku."

The comment was made by a man who suddenly appeared behind the lieutenant. Although Rukia's focus was blurred due to the amount of blood she had lost during the battle, she could still recognize that man as the Captain of the Tenth Division, Shiba Isshin.

"What is that supposed to mean, taichō? Of course, I can use kaidō. I might not be as good as those from the Fourth Division but still," Rangiku returned, glaring at her superior officer. "Anyway, did you get that Hollow?"

The captain shook his head.

"It fled to Hueco Mundo before I could land a finishing blow."

Hearing that, Rukia's eyes shot open while she tried to push herself up only to have Rangiku hold her back once again.

"Hey, don't move now," said the lieutenant. "You're only going to injure yourself more."

Isshin's attention was drawn toward Rukia for the first time since he arrived to the scene. There was a look of recognition in his eyes when he saw her face though he didn't say or do anything else that would indicate that he remembered who she was.

"I'm sorry. I would chase after Grand Fisher if I could, but Shinigami can't manipulate the Garganta and get in and out of Hueco Mundo at will like Hollows could," he said apologetically. "So instead of doing something that could lead to your imminent end just so you protect your pride, rest, recuperate and grow stronger. You will have your chances to take your revenge and restore your pride as long as you are alive."

Hearing Isshin's argument, Rukia hung her head and tightened her hold on her asauchi. Even though she knew he was right, it was not easy to accept defeat just like that. But what else could she have done then in that condition?

"Oh, well, I guess we should be heading back home," Isshin said after a long silence fell. "I'm sure there are people who are worrying about us now."

* * *

Standing in one secluded corner near to the tower where the Senkaimon was located, Byakuya anxiously watched as students started to come out of the tower.

Although he headed to the Senkaimon immediately after he received a message reporting a sighting of one notorious Hollow, Grand Fisher, at the site where the Shinō Academy's students were scheduled to have their training; he was not the first to respond to the alert. Captain Shiba Isshin of the Tenth Division had the honor.

In any other circumstances, Byakuya would have left the scene as soon as he was informed that someone else had already responded to the dispatch. However, since he couldn't sense Rukia's presence in Soul Society, which indicated that she was one of the students who had gone to the World of the Living to train that day, he chose to remain there.

The truth was if it had been entirely up to him, he would have crossed over to the World of the Living in a heartbeat as he wouldn't trust anyone else with Rukia's safety even if that other person was a Shinigami captain. It wouldn't have mattered if she found out about his true identity and hated him for not being completely honest with her as long as he could keep her safe. However, since he was not the first to respond to the dispatch, all he could do was patiently waiting until he could see with his own eyes that she was unharmed.

Since he couldn't directly see the Senkaimon from where he stood, Byakuya had to keep reminding himself to have some faith and patience. However, it had gradually become harder to remain calm with every second that passed by without him being able to sense Rukia's presence, and the fact that a group of the Fourth Division's Shinigami just ran up the tower only served to worsen his anxiety.

It felt like an eternity had passed before a flash of light went off at the top of the tower, signifying that the Senkaimon was opened once again. He quickly searched for Rukia's presence again, and sighed in relief once he could detect her presence. However, the relief was short lived, since he came to realize just how weak her presence was.

It took all the will power he had ever possessed to keep Byakuya from making his way up the tower to see what caused Rukia's presence to be that weak. Clenching his fists, he told himself he would only get in the way if she was truly injured and needed medical treatment and that his showing up there and revealing his true identity to her at that moment would only serve to worsen the situation.

Thus he waited despite his every instinct telling him to go to her.

He wasn't sure how long he stood there, watching the top of the tower as if doing so would give him some idea what was going on up there. Everything seemed completely dark and quiet, and even Senbonzakura who usually had something to say had been strangely quiet that whole time.

Byakuya's eyes went back to the tower's gate as soon as he sensed some movements there.

The first thing he saw was a group of Fourth Division's member carrying two stretchers out of the tower. One of the stretcher was completely covered with white sheet, indicating that whoever lied there was no longer alive, while the fate of the person who was on another stretcher seemed slightly better as the person's face was not covered. He was almost relieved when he could tell that it wasn't Rukia who was on those stretchers. However, he would not be fully relieved until he could see that Rukia was fine.

A few more minutes had passed until he finally spotted Rukia among the group of the people who went down from the tower. And the moment he saw how she looked, Byakuya felt as if someone had ripped his heart out and then stomped on it.

Rukia was staggering out of the tower on her own even though one of the Fourth Division's Shinigami seemed to have offered her to help her. She had a bandage wrapped around her forehead while she was wearing an arm sling on her left arm. There could be other injuries; however, it was hard for Byakuya to see from that distance.

Even though he had expected the worst, it still pained him to see her that way without being able to do anything. He wished he could approach her, ask her if she was alright and then utter some comforting words to her should she needed him to. However, he couldn't do so. Not when he was clad in his full lieutenant uniform. Not when everyone there but her would know him as Kuchiki Byakuya. Him being there at that moment would serve no other purpose aside from adding insult to injury.

Thus, Byakuya had no other choice but to look away and then left his post as if the scene didn't bother him in the slightest.

"I didn't expect to see you here at this time, Byakuya."

Byakuya almost jumped out of his skin when someone suddenly greeted him from behind. He had been sure to be discreet the whole time he stayed near the tower; however, it seemed he couldn't escape the sight of the captain of the Tenth Division, Shiba Isshin.

"Shiba-taichō," he responded in way of greeting.

"I take it you came to answer the dispatch," the captain assumed. Then with a smug look, he added, "Too bad I beat you to it."

Byakuya wanted to roll his eyes at Isshin's general behavior. Sometimes it was hard for Byakuya to understand why Captain Shiba almost always behaved in such an immature way despite his age and stature.

"It is not as if we were in some kind of race or I was in dire need for some bounty rewards, so it doesn't matter to me who took the mission as long as the mission is successful."

Isshin's smile faded at Byakuya's words.

"It wasn't, though," Isshin admitted. "One student was killed and two were injured. That damn Hollow even managed to survive and escape back to Hueco Mundo even though it got shot with my Getsuga."

Byakuya narrowed his eyes as he tried his best to suppress the anger that suddenly rose up when he realized that the Hollow that hurt Rukia was still alive and well somewhere in the Hollow's realm. To be fair, Grand Fisher had been able to escape from the Goteijūsantai for years, and it had to have some tricks up its sleeves if it could survive the trademark attack of the captain of the Tenth Division. Even if Byakuya had been the one to answered the dispatch, he couldn't be certain he could have done better than Isshin had, since Byakuya would probably be more concerned about Rukia's well being than about getting rid of that Hollow.

"I find it hard to believe that an ordinary Hollow could to survive your favorite technique."

Isshin pouted. "Now you're making me feel incompetent."

"I can assure you that was not my intention," Byakuya said blandly. His tone indicated that he couldn't care less whether the captain would believe him or not. "It is just that this incident has me concerned."

Isshin raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"This is the second time that Hollows attack our students this semester," Byakuya said. "Once may be considered a coincident, but twice is something we might want to look into."

Isshin furrowed his brows at Byakuya's suggestion.

"Well, someone has to be pulling a string if those attacks aren't merely coincident since I doubt those mindless Hollows could organize any kind of plan by themselves," Isshin noted. "But if someone is actually pulling a string, don't you think they would know better than to orchestrate two attacks on the students in such a short period of time and have us look closer into those incidents?"

"I could be overly concerned. Or whoever orchestrates this might expect that we would have that line of thought and wouldn't look into those incidents at all," Byakuya suggested. "Or worse, they do not care how we might look at those incidents since they didn't think we would be able to catch them anyway."

Isshin took a moment to consider Byakuya's argument then he shrugged.

"Young people these days sure are serious," he commented. "Oh, well, I guess I'll just note your concern in my report and see what the higher ups would say about it."

"If by the higher ups you meant the Central 46 Chambers, I doubt they will say anything," Byakuya said with finality. "Shinō Academy's students are never their top priorities."

Isshin nodded in agreement.

"Now that you mentioned it, I don't think I know what the priorities of those old folks actually are either," Isshin noted. "But if you're really concerned, Byakuya, you can look into the matter yourself. It's not like anyone's ever gonna complain about what you do in your free time."

"That is what I'm planning to do from the start."

Isshin tilted his head slightly as he looked at Byakuya's face.

"Since when have you come to care about what happened to the students, Byakuya?"

It seemed like an innocent question. However, since Byakuya had no doubt Isshin had already met Rukia and noticed the resemblance between the girl and Hisana, he suspected the captain had already known the answer to his own question but chose to test the water before he would decide how to thread the subject.

"I haven't, Shiba-taichō," Byakuya replied almost coldly. "I only want to make sure that no one is planning anything against the peace of Soul Society. Now if you'd excuse me, I have some other matters to attend to."

Isshin narrowed his eyes, obviously not buying Byakuya's excuse yet courteous enough not to call him out on it.

"Well, I don't really know what you're planning to do, Byakuya, but I'm not going to be your way for now," Isshin said. "But if you ever want to talk to anyone about it, you know I'm all ears."

A slight smile graced Byakuya's lips as he suspected Isshin wasn't talking about whatever it was that Byakuya claimed he had to attend to afterward. While he appreciated how the man was thoughtful enough not to press him for any explanation even after he had already connected the dots, Rukia was not the subject Byakuya wished to discuss with anyone and should there be a day when he wished to talk to anyone about her, Isshin would still not be his first choice. Even so, it was still good to know that there were still someone out there who cared enough to offer to be his confidant should he ever need one.

"I appreciate your offer, Shiba-taichō, but this is something I have to do on my own," he replied. "Good night."

Isshin nodded in understanding, though Byakuya highly doubted the man truly did.

"Good night, Byakuya."


End file.
